Dogs and All about Them

The original broken-haired Yorkshire Terrier of thirty years ago was often called a Scottish Terrier, or even a Skye, and there are many persons who still confound him with the Clydesdale, whom he somewhat closely resembles. At the present time he is classified as a toy dog and exhibited almost solely as such. It is to be regretted that until very lately the terrier character was being gradually bred out of him, and that the perkiness, the exuberance and gameness which once distinguished him as the companion of the Yorkshire operative, was in danger of being sacrificed to the desire for diminutive size and inordinate length of coat. Perhaps it would be an error to blame the breeders of Yorkshire Terriers for this departure from the original type as it appeared, say, about 1870. It is necessary to take into consideration the probability that what is now called the old-fashioned working variety was never regarded by the Yorkshiremen who made him as a complete and finished achievement. It was possibly their idea at the very beginning to produce just such a diminutive dog as is now to be seen in its perfection at exhibitions, glorying in its flowing tresses of steel blue silk and ruddy gold; and one must give them full credit for the patience and care with which during the past forty years they have been steadily working to the fixed design of producing a dwarfed breed which should excel all other breeds in the length and silkiness of its robe. The extreme of cultivation in this particular quality was reached some years ago by Mrs. Troughear, whose little dog Conqueror, weighing 5-1/2 lb., had a beautiful enveloping mantle of the uniform length of four-and-twenty inches.