Apart from colour, the varieties should conform to the same standard. The head should be broad and massive, but in no sense heavy in appearance. The muzzle should be short, square, and clean cut, eyes rather wide apart, deep set, dark and small, not showing any haw; ears small, with close side carriage, covered with fine short hair (there should be no fringe to the ears), expression full of intelligence, dignity, and kindness.
The body should be long, square, and massive, loins strong and well filled; chest deep and broad; legs quite straight, somewhat short in proportion to the length of the body, and powerful, with round bone well covered with muscle; feet large, round, and close. The tail should be only long enough to reach just below the hocks, free from kink, and never curled over the back. The quality of the coat is very important; the coat should be very dense, with plenty of undercoat; the outer coat somewhat harsh and quite straight. A curly coat is very objectionable. A dog with a good coat may be in the water for a considerable time without getting wet on the skin.
The appearance generally should indicate a dog of great strength, and very active for his build and size, moving freely with the body swung loosely between the legs, which gives a slight roll in gait. This has been compared to a sailor's roll, and is typical of the breed.
As regards size, the Newfoundland Club standard gives 140 lbs. to 120 lbs. weight for a dog, and 110 lbs. to 120 lbs. for a bitch, with an average height at the shoulder of 27 inches and 25 inches respectively; but it is doubtful whether dogs in proper condition do conform to both requirements. At any rate, the writer is unable to trace any prominent Newfoundlands which do, and it would be safe to assume that for dogs of the weights specified, the height should be quite 29 inches for dogs, and 27 inches for bitches. A dog weighing 150 lbs. and measuring 29 inches in height at the shoulder would necessarily be long in body to be in proportion, and would probably much nearer approach the ideal form of a Newfoundland than a taller dog.
In that respect Newfoundlands have very much improved during the past quarter of a century. Twenty-five years ago, the most noted dogs were stated as a rule to be well over 30 inches in height, but their weight for height would indicate legginess, which is an abomination in a Newfoundland. A 29-inch Newfoundland is quite tall enough, and even that height should not be gained at the expense of type and symmetry.
The white and black variety are, as a rule, slightly taller, smaller in loin and longer in head, but these differences in the two varieties are being rapidly removed, and at no distant date the white and black variety will probably be as correct in type and symmetry as the black variety now is.
For very many years the black variety has been the better in type; and in breeding, if blacks are desired, it will be safer as a general rule to insist upon the absence of white and black blood in any of the immediate ancestors of the sire and dam. But if, on the contrary, white and black dogs are required, the proper course is to make judicious crosses between the black and white, and black varieties, and destroy any black puppies, unless they are required for further crosses with white and black blood. In any case the first cross is likely to produce both black and mis-marked white and black puppies; but the latter, if bred back to the white and black blood, would generally produce well-marked white and black Newfoundlands.
In mating, never be guided solely by the good points of the dog and bitch. It is very desirable that they should both have good points, the more good ones the better, but it is more important to ensure that they are dissimilar in their defects, and, if possible, that in neither case is there a very objectionable defect, especially if such defect was also apparent in the animal's sire or dam.
[Illustration: MRS. VALE NICOLAS'S NEWFOUNDLAND CH. SHELTON VIKING
Photograph by T. Fall]
It is, therefore, important to study what were the good, and still more so the bad, points in the parents and grandparents. If you do not know these, other Newfoundland breeders will willingly give information, and any trouble involved in tracing the knowledge required will be amply repaid in the results, and probably save great disappointment.
When rearing puppies give them soft food, such as well-boiled rice and milk, as soon as they will lap, and, shortly afterwards, scraped lean meat. Newfoundland puppies require plenty of meat to induce proper growth. The puppies should increase in weight at the rate of 3 lbs. a week, and this necessitates plenty of flesh, bone and muscle-forming food, plenty of meat, both raw and cooked. Milk is also good, but it requires to be strengthened with Plasmon, or casein. The secret of growing full-sized dogs with plenty of bone and substance is to get a good start from birth, good feeding, warm, dry quarters, and freedom for the puppies to move about and exercise themselves as they wish. Forced exercise may make them go wrong on their legs. Medicine should not be required except for worms, and the puppies should be physicked for these soon after they are weaned, and again when three or four months old, or before that if they are not thriving. If free from worms, Newfoundland puppies will be found quite hardy, and, under proper conditions of food and quarters, they are easy to rear.
CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT DANE
The origin of the Great Dane, like that of many other varieties of dogs, is so obscure that all researches have only resulted in speculative theories, but the undoubted antiquity of this dog is proved by the fact that representatives of a breed sufficiently similar to be considered his ancestors are found on some of the oldest Egyptian monuments.
A few years ago a controversy arose on the breed's proper designation, when the Germans claimed for it the title "Deutsche Dogge." Germany had several varieties of big dogs, such as the Hatzrude, Saufanger, Ulmer Dogge, and Rottweiler Metzgerhund; but contemporaneously with these there existed, as in other countries in Europe, another very big breed, but much nobler and more thoroughbred, known as the Great Dane. When after the war of 1870 national feeling was pulsating very strongly in the veins of reunited Germany, the German cynologists were on the lookout for a national dog, and for that purpose the Great Dane was re-christened "Deutsche Dogge," and elected as the champion of German Dogdom. For a long time all these breeds had, no doubt, been indiscriminately crossed.
The Great Dane was introduced into this country spasmodically some thirty-five years ago, when he was commonly referred to as the Boarhound, or the German Mastiff, and for a time the breed had to undergo a probationary period in the "Foreign Class" at dog shows, but it soon gained in public favour, and in the early 'eighties a Great Dane Club was formed, and the breed has since become one of the most popular of the larger dogs.
The Kennel Club has classed the Great Dane amongst the Non-Sporting dogs, probably because with us he cannot find a quarry worthy of his mettle; but, for all that, he has the instincts and qualifications of a sporting dog, and he has proved himself particularly valuable for hunting big game in hot climates, which he stands very well.
Respecting the temperament of the Great Dane and his suitability as a companion writers have gone to extremes in praise and condemnation. In his favour it must be said that in natural intelligence he is surpassed by very few other dogs. He has a most imposing figure, and does not, like some other big breeds, slobber from his mouth, which is a particularly unpleasant peculiarity when a dog is kept in the house. On the other hand, it must be admitted that with almost the strength of a tiger he combines the excitability of a terrier, and no doubt a badly trained Great Dane is a very dangerous animal. It is not sufficient to teach him in the haphazard way which might be successful in getting a small dog under control, but even as a companion he ought to be trained systematically, and, considering his marked intelligence, this is not difficult of accomplishment.
The Great Dane attains his full development in about a year and a half to two years, and, considering that puppies have to build up in that time a very big skeleton and