Dogs and All about Them

But from this small beginning important results were to spring, and the Old English Sheepdog has made great strides in popularity since then. At Clerkenwell, in 1905, the entries in his classes reached a total of over one hundred, and there was no gainsaying the quality. This satisfactory result is due in no small measure to the initiative of the Old English Sheepdog Club, a society founded in 1888, with the avowed intention of promoting the breeding of the old-fashioned English Sheepdog, and of giving prizes at various shows held under Kennel Club Rules. The pioneers of this movement, so far as history records their names, were Dr. Edwardes-Ker, an enthusiast both in theory and in practice, from whose caustic pen dissentients were wont to suffer periodical castigation; Mr. W. G. Weager, who has held office in the club for some twenty years; Mrs. Mayhew, who capably held her own amongst her fellow-members of the sterner sex; Mr. Freeman Lloyd, who wrote an interesting pamphlet on the breed in 1889; and Messrs. J. Thomas and Parry Thomas. Theirs can have been no easy task at the outset, for it devolved upon them to lay down, in a succinct and practical form, leading principles for the guidance of future enthusiasts. It runs thus:--