The Hindus also regard the dog as unclean, and submit to various purifications if they accidentally come in contact with it, believing that every dog is animated by a wicked and malignant spirit condemned to do penance in that form for crimes committed in a previous state of existence. In every Mahommedan and Hindu country the most scurrilous epithet bestowed on a European or a Christian is “a dog,” and that accounts for the fact that in the whole of the Jewish history there is not a single allusion to hunting with dogs. Mention is made of nets and snares, but the dog does not seem to have been used in the pursuit of game.
In the early periods of the history of other countries this seems to have been the case even where the dog was esteemed and valued, and had become the companion, the friend and the defender of man and his home; and in the 2nd century of the Christian era Arrian wrote that “there is as much difference between a fair trial of speed in a good run, and ensnaring a poor animal without an effort, as between the secret piratical assaults of robbers at sea and the victorious naval engagements of the Athenians at Artemisium and at Salamis.” The first hint of the employment of the dog in the pursuit of other animals is given by Oppian in his Cynegetica, who attributes it to Pollux about 200 years after the promulgation of the Levitical law. The precise species of dog that was cultivated in Greece at that early period cannot be affirmed, although a beautiful piece of sculpture in the possession of Lord Feversham at Duncombe Hall, representing the favourite dog of Alcibiades, differs but little from the Newfoundland dog of the present day. In the British Museum is another piece of early sculpture from the ruins of the villa of Antoninus, near Rome. The greyhound puppies which it represents are identical with a brace of saplings of the present day. In the early periods of their history the Greeks depended too much on their nets to capture game, and it was not until later times that they pursued their prey with dogs, and then not with greyhounds, which run by sight, but with beagles, the dwarf hound which is still very popular. Later, mention is made of large and ferocious dogs which were employed to guard sheep and cattle, or to watch at the door of the house, or even to act as a companion, and G. Cuvier expresses the opinion that the dog exhibits the most complete and the most useful conquest that man has made. Each individual is entirely devoted to his master, adopts his manners, distinguishes and defends his property, and remains attached to him even unto death; and all this springs not from mere necessity nor from constraint, but simply from gratitude and true friendship.
The swiftness, the strength and the highly developed power of scent in the dog, have made it a powerful ally of man against the other animals; and perhaps these qualities in the dog were necessary to the establishment of society. Instances of dogs having saved the lives of their owners by that strange intuition of approaching danger which they appear to possess, or by their protection, are innumerable: their attachment to man has inspired the poet and formed the subject of many notable books, while in Daniel’s Rural Sports is related a story of a dog dying in the fulness of joy caused by the return of his master after a two years’ absence from home.
It is not improbable that all dogs sprang from one common source, but climate, food and cross-breeding caused variations of form which suggested particular uses, and these being either designedly or accidentally perpetuated, the various breeds of dogs arose, and became numerous in proportion to the progress of civilization. Among the ruder or savage tribes they possess but one form; but the ingenuity of man has devised many inventions to increase his comforts; he has varied and multiplied the characters and kinds of domestic animals for the same purpose, and hence the various breeds of horses, cattle and dogs. The parent stock it is now impossible to trace; but the wild dog, wherever found on the continent of Asia, or northern Europe, has nearly the same character, and bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the British dog of the ordinary type; while many of those from the southern hemisphere can scarcely be distinguished from the cross-bred poaching dog, the lurcher.
Dogs were first classified into three groups:—(1) Those having the head more or less elongated, and the parietal bones of the skull widest at the base and gradually approaching towards each other as they ascend, the condyles of the lower jaw being on the same line with the upper molar teeth. The greyhound and all its varieties belong to this class. (2) The head moderately elongated and the parietals diverging from each other for a certain space as they rise upon the side of the head, enlarging the cerebral cavity and the frontal sinus. To this class belong most of the useful dogs, such as the spaniel, the setter, the pointer and the sheepdog. (3) The muzzle more or less shortened, the frontal sinus enlarged, and the cranium elevated and diminished in capacity. To this class belong some of the terriers and most of the toy dogs.
Later, however, “Stonehenge” (J.H. Walsh), in British Rural Sports, classified dogs as follows:—(a) Dogs that find game for man, leaving him to kill it himself—the pointer, setters, spaniels and water spaniels. (b) Dogs which kill game when found for them—the English greyhound. (c) Dogs which find and also kill their game—the bloodhound, the foxhound, the harrier, the beagle, the otterhound, the fox terrier and the truffle dog. (d) Dogs which retrieve game that has been wounded by man—the retriever, the deerhound. (e) Useful companions of man—the mastiff, the Newfoundland, the St Bernard dog, the bulldog, the bull terrier, terriers, sheepdogs, Pomeranian or Spitz, and Dalmatian dogs. (f) Ladies’ toy dogs—King Charles spaniel, the Blenheim spaniel, the Italian greyhound, the pug dog, the Maltese dog, toy terriers, toy poodles, the lion dog, Chinese and Japanese spaniels. In 1894 Modern Dogs (Rawdon B. Lee) was issued, the simple classification of sporting and non-sporting dog—terriers and toy dogs, being adopted; but although there had been an understanding since 1874, when the first volume of the Kennel Club Stud Book (Frank C. S. Pearce) was issued, as to the identity of the two great divisions of dogs, an incident at Altrincham Show in September 1900—an exhibitor entering a Russian wolfhound in both the sporting and non-sporting competitions—made it necessary for authoritative information to be given as to how the breeds should be separated. Following petitions to the Kennel Club from exhibitors at the club’s own show at the Crystal Palace, and also at the show of the Scottish Kennel Club in Edinburgh during the autumn of 1900, the divisions were decided upon as follows:—
Sporting.—Bloodhound, otterhound, foxhound, harrier, beagle, basset hound (smooth and rough), dachshund, greyhound, deerhound, Borzoi, Irish wolfhound, whippet, pointer, setter (English, Irish and black and tan), retriever (flat-coated, curly-coated and Labrador), spaniel (Irish water, water other than Irish, Clumber, Sussex, field, English springer, other than Clumber, Sussex and field: Welsh springer, red and white and Cocker); fox terriers (smooth- and wire-coated); Irish terrier, Scotch terrier, Welsh terrier, Dandie Dinmont terrier, Skye terrier (prick-eared and drop-eared), Airedale terrier and Bedlington terrier.
Non-Sporting.—Bulldog, bulldog (miniature), mastiff, Great Dane, Newfoundland (black, white and black, or other than black), St Bernard (rough and smooth), Old English sheepdog, collie (rough and smooth), Dalmatian, poodle, bull terrier, white English terrier, black and tan terrier, toy spaniel (King Charles or black and tan, Blenheim, ruby or red and tricolour), Japanese, Pekingese, Yorkshire terrier, Maltese, Italian greyhound, chow-chow, black and tan terrier (miniature), Pomeranian, pug (fawn and black), Schipperke, Griffon Bruxellois, foreign dogs (bouledogues français, elk-hounds, Eskimos, Lhasa terriers, Samoyedes and any other varieties not mentioned under this heading).
On the 4th of May 1898 a sub-committee of the Kennel Club decided that the following breeds should be classified as “toy dogs”:—Black and tan terriers (under 7 ℔), bull terriers (under 8 ℔), griffons, Italian greyhounds, Japanese, Maltese, Pekingese, poodles (under 15 in.), pugs, toy spaniels, Yorkshire terriers and Pomeranians.
All these varieties were represented at the annual show of the
