The Dalmatian or coach dog (sometimes called the plum-pudding dog) is a lightly built pointer, distinguished by its spotted coloration, consisting of evenly disposed circular black spots on a white ground. The original breed is said to have been used as a pointer in the country from which it takes its name, but has been much modified by the fancier’s art, and almost certainly the original strain has been crossed with bull-terriers.
Mastiffs are powerful, heavily built dogs, with short muzzles, frequently protruding lower jaws, skulls raised above the eyes, ears erect or pendulous, pendulous upper lips, short coats and thin tails. The English mastiff is a huge and powerful dog with pendent ears but short and silky coat. Fawn and brindle are the colours preferred. The Tibetan mastiff is equally powerful, but has still larger pendent ears, a shaggy coat and a long brush-like tail. Mastiffs are employed for fighting or as watchdogs, and for the most part are of uncertain temper and not high intelligence.
The bulldog is a small, compact but extremely heavily built animal of great strength, vigour and tenacity. The lower jaw should be strongly protruding, the ears should be small and erect, the forehead deeply wrinkled with an indentation between the eyes, known as the “stop.” The coat should be thick, short and very silky, the favourite colours being white and white marked with brindle. Bulldogs were formerly employed in bull-baiting, and the tenacity of their grip is proverbial. Their ferocious appearance, and not infrequently the habits of their owners, have given this breed a reputation for ferocity and low intelligence. As puppies, however, bulldogs are highly intelligent and unusually docile and affectionate, and if well trained retain throughout life an unusual sweetness of disposition, the universal friendliness of which makes them of little use as guardians.
The German boarhound is one of the largest races of dogs, originally used in Germany and Denmark for hunting boars or deer, but now employed chiefly as watchdogs. The build is rather slighter than that of the English mastiff, and the ears are small and carried erect.
The Great Dane is somewhat similar in general character, but is still more gracefully built, with slender limbs and more pointed muzzle. The ears, naturally pendent at the tips, are always cropped. It is probable that the strain contains greyhound blood.
The bull-terrier, as its name implies, is a cross between the bulldog and the smooth terrier. It is a clever, agile and powerful dog, extremely pugnacious in disposition.
The pugdog is a dwarf race, probably of mastiff origin, and kept solely as a pet. The Chinese pug is slender legged, with long hair and a bushy tail.
Terriers are small dogs of agile and light build, short muzzles, and very highly arched skulls. The brains are large, and the intelligence and educability extraordinarily high. The number of breeds is very large, the two extreme types being the smooth fox-terrier with compact shape, relatively long legs, and the long-bodied, short-legged Skye terrier, with long hair and pendent ears.
All the well-known breeds of dogs are highly artificial and their maintenance requires the constant care of the breeder in mating, and in rejecting aberrant progeny. The frequency with which even the most highly cultivated strains produce degenerate offspring is notorious, and is probably the reason for the profound belief in telegonic action asserted by most breeders. When amongst the litter of a properly mated, highly bred fox-terrier, pups are found with long bodies and thick short legs and feet, breeders are disposed to excuse the result by the supposition that the bitch has been contaminated by some earlier mating. There is ample evidence, however, that such departures from type are equally frequent when there was no possibility of earlier mismating (see Telegony).
Glossary of Points of the Dog.
Apple Head. A rounded head, instead of flat on top. |
DOGE (a modified form of the Ital. duca, Lat. dux, a leader, or duke), the title of the chief magistrate in the extinct republics of Venice and Genoa.
In Venice the office of doge was first instituted about 700. John the Deacon, referring to this incident in his Chronicon Venetum, written about 1000, says “all the Venetian cities (omnes Venetiae) determined that it would be more honourable henceforth to be under dukes than under tribunes.” The result was that the several tribunes were replaced by a single official who was called a doge and who became the head of the whole state. The first doge was Paolo Lucio Anafesto, and some authorities think that the early doges were subject to the authority of the emperors of Constantinople, but in any case this subordination was of short duration. The doge held office for life and was regarded as the ecclesiastical, the civil and the military chief; his duties and prerogatives were not defined with precision and the limits of his ability and ambition were practically the limits of his power. About 800 his independence was slightly diminished by the appointment of two assistants for judicial work, but these officers soon fell into the background and the doge acquired a greater and more irresponsible authority. Concurrently with this process the position was entrusted to members of one or other of the powerful Venetian families, while several doges associated a son with themselves in the ducal office. Matters reached a climax after the fall of the Orseole family in 1026. In 1033, during the dogeship of Dominico Flabianico, this tendency towards a hereditary despotism was checked by a law which decreed that no doge had the right to associate any member of his family with himself in his office, or to name his successor. It was probably at this time also that two councillors were appointed to advise the doge, who must, moreover, invite the aid of prominent citizens when discussing important matters of state. In 1172 a still more important change was introduced. The ducal councillors were increased in number from two to six; universal suffrage, which theoretically still existed, was replaced by a system which entrusted the election of the doge to a committee of eleven, who were chosen by a great council of 480 members, the great council being nominated annually by twelve persons. When a new doge was chosen he was presented to the people with the formula “this is your doge, if it please you.” Nominally the citizens confirmed the election, thus maintaining as a constitutional fiction the right of the whole people to choose their chief magistrate. Five years
