produced that possesses a harmonious whole, “a thing of beauty” and a joy as long as he lives.  In short, the dog should be as far removed from the bull type as he is from the terrier.  If the present judges can not see their way clear to follow the standard, why, appoint those that will, for as every fair minded man agrees, the dogs should follow the standard and not the standard follow the dogs.  It is needless to add that I do not share in the pessimistic view taken by many lovers of the dog who think he will be permanently injured by the differences of opinion that prevail as to the type, etc., and the personalities that sometimes mar the showing of the dog, for I am of the same opinion as was probably felt by the great fish who had to give up Jonah, “that it is an impossible feat to keep a good man (or dog) down,” and that instead of falling off, as one writer intimates, he will fall into the good graces of a larger number of people than has heretofore fallen to the lot of any variety of man’s best friend.

CHAPTER XII.

PICTURE TAKING.

It would seem at the first glance that to write on this subject was only a waste of time and energy, and yet I know that no one feature of the dog business is more vital in importance or more fraught with trouble than this apparently simple process of dog photography.

The novice will at once exclaim:  “What could be more natural than sending on a picture of a dog I want to sell to the prospective customer?  Surely he can see exactly what he is purchasing!” This may be perfectly true, and yet again it may not.

I am not writing of the subject of false pictures on the stud cards of some unscrupulous breeders, or those pictures taken of dogs whose markings are faked, only too common in some quarters.  The photos look good, of course, to the buyer, but when the dog arrives, he finds, to his disgust, that the beautiful markings, in some mysterious manner, got “rubbed off” while making the journey in the crate.  I recently saw a photograph of a dog sold to a Western customer, by a dealer in an adjoining town to mine, taken by an artist in photography when the dog was all “chalked up”.  When the dog arrived he was as free from nose band as my pocket is frequently of a dollar bill.  Small wonder the buyer remarked with emphasis that the dealer was a fraud.  One can almost forgive his exclamation, which he surely had not learned at Sunday school, at being taken in, in so mean a way.

I am writing more particularly of the art of the photographer in bringing out the best points of the dog, and effectually hiding the poorer ones.  How many times have we heard the dealer say, in speaking of a dog with good markings, but off in many other respects:  “He will make a good seller to ship away, as I can get a good looking picture of him.”  He knows perfectly well that a clever photographer can so pose the dog as to hide bad defects.  A long muzzle, a long back, or one badly roached, poor tail, bad legs and feet, can all be minimized by posing the dog on the stand.  The buyer, on receipt of the dog, although thoroughly dissatisfied, will have to admit that the photo is a genuine one, and, in most cases, is unable to obtain any redress.