A Matter of Breeding
Page 27
47. E. Yarham, “Roots of Tradition,” AKC Gazette, March 1946.
48. “Benefits of Registration,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org.
49. Freeman Lloyd, “With the Dogs of Our Forefathers,” AKC Gazette, March 31, 1925.
50. Freeman Lloyd, “Many Dogs in Many Lands,” AKC Gazette, September 30, 1924.
51. Ida Garrett, “The Dog of Aztec Royalty,” AKC Gazette, December 31, 1925.
52. William Burrows, “Queen Victoria and Our Collies,” AKC Gazette, July 31, 1924.
53. Gerald and Loretta Hausman, The Mythology of Dogs (New York: St. Martin’s, 1997), 170.
54. Annie Coath Dixey, The Lion Dog of Peking (New York: Dutton, 1931), 244.
55. “Pyrenean Shepherd: Breed Standard,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org.
56. “Breed Information Centre: Rhodesian Ridgeback,” Kennel Club, http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/.
57. “Rhodesian Ridgeback: Breed Standard,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org.
58. V. W. F. Collier, Dogs of China & Japan in Nature and Art (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1921), 170.
CHAPTER EIGHT
1. Joseph Epstein, Snobbery: The American Version (New York: Mariner, 2003), 114.
2. “Golden Retriever: Breed Standard,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org.
3. Freeman Lloyd, “Among the Retriever Dogs,” AKC Gazette, March 1, 1932.
4. “Retriever Field Trials: History of the Sport,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org.
5. Donald McCaig, “Give This Dog a Job,” New York Times, July 5, 1992.
6. Mowbray Walter Morris, Hunting (London: Longmans, Green, 1885), 189–90.
7. Joe Arnette, “Likable ‘Guys,’” Gun Dog Magazine, September 23, 2010, http://www.gundogmag.com.
8. “It doesn’t cost any more to feed ‘pretty’ dogs,” a famous breeder of yellow hunting Labs with perfect skulls and traditional “otter” tails tells Gun Dog Magazine. Does this mean she only feeds dogs if they’re “pretty”? James Spencer, “Braemar Labradors: Good Looking Shooting Dogs,” Gun Dog Magazine, September 23, 2010, http://www.gundogmag.com.
9. William Arkwright, The Pointer and His Predecessors: An Illustrated History of the Pointing Dog from the Earliest Times (London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1902), 72, 81, 85, 83, 80, 89.
10. Carson Ritchie, The British Dog (London: Robert Hale, 1981), 91.
11. Ibid., 105.
12. Katharine MacDonogh, Reigning Cats and Dogs: A History of Pets at Court Since the Renaissance (New York: St. Martin’s, 1999), chap. 1.
13. Jacques du Fouilloux, La vénerie de Jacques du Fouilloux, Gentil-homme . . . (Paris: A. Poitiers, de Marnefz, et Bouchetz, freres, 1561).
14. Elzéar Blaze, Le chasseur au chien d’arrêt (Paris, 1846), 255–58.
15. James Robinson, Readings in European History (New York: Ginn, 1906), 435.
16. Morris, Hunting, 317, 190.
17. John Caius, Of Englishe Dogges (Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2012; orig. pub. 1576), 27.
18. Ritchie, The British Dog, 162.
19. Emma Griffin, Blood Sport: Hunting in Britain Since 1066 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 159.
20. Patrick Burns, “The Glory of British Dogs,” Dogs Today, August 2010, www.dogstodaymagazine.co.uk.
21. Joe Arnette, “A Close To Perfect Union,” Gun Dog Magazine, September 23, 2010.
22. Richard Hirneisen, “In The Company of Dogs,” Gun Dog Magazine, September 23, 2010.
23. Freeman Lloyd, “Many Dogs in Many Lands,” AKC Gazette, September 30, 1924.
24. Arkwright, The Pointer and His Predecessors, 45, 53–54.
25. Freeman Lloyd, “Pure Breeds and Their Ancestors,” AKC Gazette, July 31, 1927.
26. David Hancock, The Heritage of the Dog (Boston: Nimrod, 1990), 233.
27. E. Cumming, “Modern English Gun Dogs,” Outing (December 1903).
28. David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (New York: Anchor, 1990), 364.
29. Ibid.
30. Morris, Hunting, 191.
31. Cathy Bryant, the Hurlingham Club, e-mail to author, August 6, 2010, with selections on pigeon shooting. London’s Hurlingham Club still exists. A pigeon remains the insignia of the elite establishment, though birds, and the gun dogs used as “concentrators” to hurl them upward for easy shooting, have long been banned from the premises. Pigeon shooting was ended for humane reasons, though dogs were employed only until they got in the way in 1872 and bit a coachman! Sitting in place of those hard-wired flushing spaniels is a cute little wide-eyed Cavalier seen in a photo from a recent club picnic. He sits on the lawn staring up at a silver tray of crudités.
32. Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 364.
33. William F. Stifel, The Dog Show: 125 Years of Westminster (New York: Westminster Kennel Club, 2001), 35.
34. Capt. Albert Money, Pigeon Shooting: With Instructions for Beginners . . ., A. C. Gould, ed. (New York: Shooting and Fishing Publishing, 1896), 9.
35. P. D. Q. Zabriskie, “Fox-Hunting about Rome,” Outing (December 1903): 327.
36. Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 364.
37. Arkwright, The Pointer and His Predecessors, viii.
38. Edward Ash, This Doggie Business (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1934), 148.
39. John Walsh, The Dog in Health and Disease (London: Longmans, Green, 1859), 188. Similar accounts were made of greyhounds so intensely overbred for speed and enthusiasm that they couldn’t be stopped from playing the royal game of hare chasing. Racing on enhanced levels of stimulation, they often ran to the point of collapse. They collided with each other, breaking those thin, aristocratic necks. Greyhound packs were known to shoot themselves right off cliffs (Ritchie, The British Dog, 126).
40. Arkwright, The Pointer and His Predecessors, 84.
41. Ibid., 56.
42. Rick Van Etten, editor, Gun Dog Magazine, e-mail to author, September 9, 2010.
43. Cumming, “Modern English Gun Dogs.”
44. Edward Donnaly, “Photographing Field Dogs In Action,” Outing (1904): 592.
45. Stifel, The Dog Show, 34.
CHAPTER NINE
1. Gordon Stables, “Breeding and Rearing for Pleasure, Prizes and Profit,” The Dog Owner’s Annual for 1896 (London: Dean and Son, 1896), 115.
2. Freeman Lloyd, “Many Dogs in Many Lands,” AKC Gazette, July 31, 1924.
3. Craven (pseud. for John William Carleton), The Young Sportsman’s Manual; or, Recreations in Shooting (London: Bell & Daldy, 1867), 103.
4. C. A. Bryce, The Gentleman’s Dog, His Rearing, Training and Treating (Richmond, VA: Southern Clinic Print, 1909), 113–14.
5. Richard A. Wolters, The Labrador Retriever: The History—the People (Los Angeles: Petersen Prints, 1981), 73.
6. Ibid., 72.
7. Lord George Scott and Sir John Middleton, The Labrador Dog: Its Home and History (London: H. F. and G. Witherby Ltd., 1936), 121.
8. Wolters, The Labrador Retriever, 72.
9. Ralph Lauren has since assumed the role of making Americans look British, while A&F has turned its attention to tight abs and collegiate crotches.
10. Royal Dogs (London: The Kennel Club, 2006).
11. Wolters, The Labrador Retriever, 73.
12. Ibid., 78.
13. Freeman Lloyd, “Among the Retriever Dogs,” AKC Gazette, March 1, 1932.
14. Wolters, The Labrador Retriever, 78.
15. Ibid., 112.
16. Lloyd, “Among the Retriever Dogs.”
17. Wolters, The Labrador Retriever, 78.
18. Nancy Martin, Legends in Labradors (Spring House, PA: Self, 1980), 123.
19. Mowbray Walter Morris, Hunting (London: Longmans, Green, 1885), 268.
20. Wolters, The Labrador Retriever, 108.
21. Ibid., 109. Hunting on Long Island has a solid tradition of snootiness. One of the first texts on gu
n hunting published in America (Anonymous, Heath-Hen Shooting on Long Island, 1783) describes the “so very Majestical an amusement” that was “provided with a brace of the best Pointers.” The author’s dogs were “made in England,” and a typical hunt ran as follows: “Suppose my party to consist of two Gentlemen. I would provide a single horse-chair . . . a Servant in the second chair, to carry the Dogs, (of which there should be two brace at least), provisions, liquors, tea, sugar, etc.,” and last but not least “powder and shot.” John Phillips and Lewis Hill, eds., Classics of the American Shooting Field (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930), 1–3.
CONCLUSION
1. “J. L. Kernochan Beaten,” New York Times, February 24, 1896.
2. W. M. Thackeray, The Book of Snobs (New York: D. Appleton, 1853), 21.
3. Contrary to popular lore, and some respected dog writers, the so-called “Cavalier” is not an old breed but, like so many others, an invention of the show ring. Breeders competed at Crufts in the 1920s to produce a historical replica based on court paintings from the time of Charles II. Not only is the bogus breed plagued with health problems, but the resemblance to its would-be ancestor is slight at best.
4. The “Queen Elizabeth Pocket Beagle” was created, like the “Cavalier,” based on old paintings by a woman from Indiana in 2002.
5. Carson Ritchie, The British Dog (London: Robert Hale, 1981), 157.
6. Emma Griffin, Blood Sport: Hunting in Britain Since 1066 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 159. The Ground Game Act of 1880, still in effect today, allows tenants to hunt hares and rabbits but gives landlords the exclusive right to kill winged prey.
7. Ritchie, The British Dog, 157.
8. Roger Caras, A Celebration of Dogs (New York: Times Books, 1982), 96–97.
9. Katharine MacDonogh, Reigning Cats and Dogs: A History of Pets at Court Since the Renaissance (New York: St. Martin’s, 1999), 73.
10. Mark Derr, A Dog’s History of America (New York: North Point, 2004), 24.
11. René Merlen, De Canibus: Dog and Hound in Antiquity (London: Allen, 1971), 20.
12. Caras, A Celebration of Dogs, 143.
13. MacDonogh, Reigning Cats and Dogs, 225.
14. “Dogs in China,” Facts and Details, http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat12/sub81/item266.html.
15. MacDonogh, Reigning Cats and Dogs, 226.
16. Graham Greene, A Sort of Life (New York: Penguin, 1971), 64.
17. “World War I Impact on America,” Facts on File, http://springfieldus2.wikispaces.com/file/view/WW+I.pdf.
18. “War & Peace: Liberty Cabbage,” Time, January 27, 1941, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801203,00.html.
19. MacDonogh, Reigning Cats and Dogs, 120–21.
20. Clare Campbell, “Panic That Drove Britain to Slaughter 750,000 Family Pets in One Week,” Daily Mail (UK), October 14, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2460094/Panic-drove-Britain-slaughter-750-000-family-pets-week.html.
21. Jackie Damico, “Mortgage Meltdown Results in Pets Going to the Pound,” CNN.com, November 21, 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/21/pets.foreclosure/index.html?eref.
22. Alan Beck and Aaron Katchner, Between Pets and People, preface by E. Marshall Thomas (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1996), x.
23. E. R. Paster et al., “Estimates of Prevalence of Hip Dysplasia in Golden Retrievers and Rottweilers and the Influence of Bias on Published Prevalence Figures,” JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association) 225, no. 3 (February 1, 2005): 387–92, doi: 10.2460/javma.2005.226.387.
24. J. M. Fleming et al., “Mortality in North American Dogs from 1984 to 2004: An Investigation into Age-, Size-, and Breed-Related Causes of Death,” Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 25, no. 2 (March–April 2011): 187–98, doi: 10.1111/j.1939-1676.2011.0695.x.
25. Ann Seranne, The Joy of Breeding Your Own Show Dog (Hoboken, NJ: Howell, 1980), 202.
26. Lucy Asher et al., “Inherited Defects in Pedigree Dogs: Disorders Related to Breed Standards,” Veterinary Journal 182, no. 3 (August 2009): 402–11, doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.08.033.
27. Nicola Rooney and David Sargan, Pedigree Dog Breeding in the UK: A Major Welfare Concern? (London: RSPCA, 2008).
28. Carrie Allan, “The Purebred Paradox: Is the Quest for the ‘Perfect’ Dog Driving a Genetic Health Crisis?,” All Animals (May–June 2010): 17–23, http://www.humanesociety.org.
29. “Purebred Dogs Not Always at Higher Risk for Genetic Disorders, Study Finds,” news release, UC Davis News and Information, May 28, 2013, http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10613.
30. Patrick Burns, “Pet Insurance Data Shows Mutts ARE Healthier!,” Terrierman’s Daily Dose, April 4, 2009, http://www.terriermandotcom.blogspot.com.
31. “About Registration,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org/reg/about.cfm.
32. Fleming et al., “Mortality in North American Dogs.”
33. “Purebred Dogs Not Always at Higher Risk”; “Mutts Not Always Healthier, Genetically, Than Purebred Dogs,” Chicago Tribune, May 30, 2013; Eryn Brown, “Mutts Not Always Healthier, Genetically, Than Purebred Dogs,” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2013, http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/30/science/la-sci-sn-genetic-disorders-dogs-20130530.
34. Natalie Angier, “Even Among Animals: Leaders, Followers and Schmoozers,” New York Times, April 5, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/science/06angi.html?ref=science.
35. Katy M. Evans and Vicki I. Adams, “Proportion of Litters of Purebred Dogs by Caesarean Section,” Journal of Small Animal Practice 51, no. 2 (February 2010): 113–18, doi: 10.1111/j.1748-5827.2009.00902.x.
36. “Breeding Debate,” Dog World, December 7, 2011.
37. Jane Brackman, “Body Language: Breeders, Judges and Historians Talk about Breed Standards—Why They Work and When They Don’t,” Bark, Fall 2013, http://thebark.com/category/author/jane-brackman.
38. Lissa Christopher, “Hip Pain a Bone of Contention for Pedigree Pooches,” Sydney Morning Herald, December 25, 2009, http://www.smh.com.au/national/hip-pain-a-bone-of-contention-for-pedigree-pooches-20091223-lder.html.
39. Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, “Hip Dysplasia Statistics: Hip Dysplasia by Breed,” http://www.offa.org/stats_hip.html.
40. Ellen Gamerman, “High-End Mutts Sit Up and Beg for a Little Respect,” Wall Street Journal, December 24, 2005, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB113538296120430945.
41. Jon Mooallem, “The Modern Kennel Conundrum,” New York Times, February 4, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/magazine/04dogs.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.
42. Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, “Hip Dysplasia Statistics.”
43. “AKC Facts and Stats: Why Purebred?,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org/press_center/facts_stats.cfm?page=why_purebred.
44. Burns, “Pet Insurance Data Shows Mutts ARE Healthier!” http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.ca/
45. Jemima Harrison, “Are Mongrels Healthier Than Pedigrees?” Dogs Today, October 2010, http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=481860411368.
46. Royal courts once used lapdogs, not only to attract fleas from their holders but to act as “comforter dogs,” which, it was believed, literally absorbed human illnesses from proper ladies and gentlemen. “And though some suppose that such dogges are fyt for no seruice,” wrote dog historian and Queen Elizabeth’s personal physician, John Caius, in 1570, “borne in the bosom of the diseased and weake person” it was observed that “the disease and sicknesse, chaungeth his place and entreth (though it be not precisely marcked) into the dogge, which to be no vntruth, experience can testify, for these kinde of dogges sometimes fall sicke, and sometime die, without any harm, outwardly inforced.” Here was proof of “the virtue which remaineth in the Spaniell gentle.” John Caius, Of Englishe Dogges (Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2012; orig. pub. 1576), 21–22.
47. “Gentle Giants Could Help Cure Human Heart Problem,” BBC News, October 28, 1998, http://news.bbc.c
o.uk/2/hi/health/203435.stm.
48. James Serpell, “Anthropomorphism and Anthropomorphic Selection—Beyond the ‘Cute Response,’” Society & Animals 11, no. 1 (January 2003): 83–100, http://research.vet.upenn.edu/portals/36/media/serpell_anthropomorphic.pdf.
49. Jonathan Amos, “Shar-pei Wrinkles Explained by Dog Geneticists,” BBC News, January 12, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8453794.stm.
50. Evan Ratliff, “How to Build a Dog,” National Geographic, February 2012, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/build-a-dog/ratliff-text.
51. Ewen Kirkness, e-mail to author, February 23, 2012. “Boxer Genome Is Best in Show,” says the Genome News Network about the breed’s outstandingly poor health, which made it the ideal candidate for studying disease. “Unlike a dog show—in which grooming, obedience, and gait are prized—this contest was about genetic variation. The Genome Institute wanted the dog with the least genetic variation in its genome, because this should make the assembly of the genome sequence easier.” Obama’s choice of First Dog was also wise if the intention was to study congenital illness. The chronically inbred Portuguese water dog had been named the world’s rarest breed by Guinness in 1981. Kate Dalke, “Boxer Genome Is Best in Show,” Genome News Network, http://genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/05_03/best_show.shtml; Michael Wall, “Obama’s Pick for First Dog Solidly Scientific,” Wired, February 25, 2009, http://www.wired.com/2009/02/obamadog.
52. “The Truth About White Boxers!,” Big Sky Boxers, n.d., http://www.bigskyboxers.com/white_boxers.php.
53. “10 Dogs with the Priciest Vet Bills,” Main St., October 10, 2011, http://www.mainstreet.com; “Top Breeds in Major U.S. Cities,” American Kennel Club, http://www.akc.org.
54. William Fitzgerald, “Dandy Dogs,” Strand Magazine (January–June 1896): 549.
55. Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (Auckland, NZ: Floating Press, 2009; orig. pub. 1899), 168.
56. “Neurasthenia,” Science Museum, n.d., http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/techniques/neurasthenia.aspx; “Neurasthenia,” WebMD, February 25, 2014, http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/neurasthenia.
57. Scott and Fuller’s landmark study in behavioral genetics already concluded back in the 1960s that, while “a pure breed is far from being a homogeneous group,” the “purebreds usually contain genes which produce physical defects” and “current dog breeding practices can be described as an ideal system for the spread and preservation of injurious recessive genes.” Not only are standardized “types” not as behaviorally unique as their sales pitches claim, short of the most superficial traits, breeds often fall short of uniformity—unless, of course, “predictable” means more likely to be sick and short-lived. J. L. Fuller and S. P. Scott, Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), 295, 389, 405. More recently, in 2013, a forum of scientists and writers warned, once again, about bad breeding practices and elicited only a handful of comments from New York Times readers. “The Ethics of Raising Purebred Dogs,” Opinion Pages: Room for Debate, New York Times, February 12, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/02/12/the-ethics-of-raising-purebred-dogs.