Chapter XXV THE SHOW GREYHOUND

No work on the greyhound would be complete without some mention of the family which has come to be known as “The Show Dog.”

The home of this family is Cornwall, of which country the greyhound has been a native since ancient times.  The greyhound may be said to be the national dog of the Duchy.  An old charter under which certain lands there are held, directs that a brace of greyhound has to be delivered to the Duke of Cornwall as part of the terms of the tenure.  This custom is carried out to this day, and the form is gone through with all due solemnity, but the greyhounds are always retired by the Duke at the close of the ceremony.

The Cornish dog differs in many respects from the legitimate greyhounds of the country.  I mean by “the legitimate” dogs, those which are registered in the greyhound stud book.  Few, if any, of the Cornish family appear in that volume.  There is no coursing under National Coursing Club rules in Cornwall.  There is coursing of a kind, but that is carried on privately and approaches the standard of rabbit coursing more nearly than anything else.  That is to say, the kill is the determining factor in the course.  It can but be so, for, although the Cornish dog is capable of a fair turn of speed, he is sadly deficient in working qualities and staying ability.  However, it would not be fair to criticise them too severely, for they have ceased to be working dogs and are merely exhibition animals and very delightful companions.  In the eyes of a not inconsiderable school of admirers, they are held to be a great grace and beauty, but to the coursing man, who looks more for utility qualities than accentuated good looks, they are not held to possess what he must regard as outward charm of appearance.

One of the chief attributes in a show dog is great size.  Breeding for this has been carried to a pitch bordering almost on the ridiculous.  If we take the ideal size of a coursing dog to be sixty-four pounds weight and around twenty-six inches at the shoulder, it will readily be realized what the difference in size between that and the show dog is when it is stated that the latter will scale seventy-four to seventy-six pounds and go up to between twenty-nine and thirty inches at the shoulder.  A dog of this size has to be an exceptionally good on to attain any great success in coursing.  Few there are which have ever dog anything of note.  “Harmonicon” was over seventy pounds, and was, up until 1927, the best Waterloo Cup winner of modern times.  He was an exceptional, big dog.

The abnormal size of the Cornish dog is interesting and worthy of some attention in passing.

The origin of the gigantic specimens which are to be seen at all the premier shows came about thus.  As we have seen, greyhounds have been the proud possession of the Cornishman since early times, and until some forty years ago were more or less like the other greyhounds.  If anything, indeed, they were smaller and finer than the members of the other families in England and Scotland, but at about that time there was a vicar of St. Columb Minor, near Newquay, Cornwall, who had a fine kennel of Scotch deerhounds.  The Cornishman, loving a lurcher equally with a greyhound, and always being ready to avail himself of an illicit service, lost no opportunity at St. Columb Minor, and made a point of conveying his bitches thither to get an infusion of the blood of those handsome dogs of the north which in so many respects resembled the greyhound and even excelled him in outward beauty of outline.  The crossing which there took place is therefore the landmark to which we can look back for the forebears of the show dog of to-day.

As a sporting dog, the show greyhound has all but ceased to exist.  It is not only that his conformation militates against his chances of success in the chase, but his very inclinations to pursue and kill are sadly lacking through disuse.

Let us consider for a moment the ways in which his conformation and bulk handicap him in his work.

Great height being essential, a dog with too much daylight under him has been produced, and a dog this description is unable to turn at all easily.  When he has to come round sharply he either requires a forty-acre field in which to do it, or he rolls upon his back in a smaller space.

Another essential which is demanded in a show dog is an exaggeratedly deep brisket.  In an earlier chapter we have shown that brisket of an abnormal depth will bump upon the ground in uneven places when the dog is fully extended, and this is so much the case in the Cornish dogs that I have seen a dog cut himself to the bone in an endeavour to overtake a rabbit.

The gun-barrel front and tightly-fitting elbows, so much in vogue in show dogs, are other factors which hamper the dog in his movements for, although we all like a good fronted one, there are limits.

The strangest freak in the make-up of the Cornish dog is his disinclination to follow the lawful calling of every good greyhound.  His lack of fire may be due to two causes, the first being the excessive amount of inbreeding which has been done—and probably even then to animals of poor fire—and then second is that the dog, ever since he became a show dog, has been purposely kept from his game.

A fetish of the show ring is that dogs must be shown with lean shoulders, and this they cannot have if allowed to gallop, as they become muscled up on the shoulder.  In consequence the Cornish dog seldom or never gets a gallop.  He therefore seldom sees a hare.  If he is a good specimen and looks like making up into a champion, he is taken in hand at a tender age, four months perhaps, and led daily at a slow pace preparatory to being got ready for puppy classes when he is over six months old.

Last year, when there was great demand for unregistered dogs to go abroad for greyhound racing, Cornwall was denuded of most of her greyhounds, and it is a fact that more than fifty per cent. of them had to be returned as they would not chase the electric hare.  It was argued by some that those dogs were so superlatively clever that they recognised the absurdity of an attempt to catch the mechanical hare, but this hardly holds water.  From amongst the registered dogs which came green to the tracks there were very few which did not chase the hare.  The Cornish dog is essentially a show dog and as such we must treat him.  He has never had a great measure of popularity as a breed, but he has had a staunch following at most times, and when judging is in progress at the big shows the greyhound ring is always one which is well lined with spectators.  If the greyhound has never been in the forefront as a popular dog he has never been entirely in the doldrums, as is the case in so many other breeds which attain to world-wide popularity for a short time and then go out entirely.

Wonderful prices have ruled for many years for really good specimens such as “St. Blaise,” a famous Champion of a few years ago.  Miss Dorothy Beadon gave ninety guineas for “St. Blaise,” when unshown and Gertrude, The Lady Decies, gave high prices for “Larchmond King,” whom she made a Champion, and for “Scotswood Sylph,” an enormous bitch.  Americans have always been carried away by our show greyhounds, and practically every good specimen which has come into prominence in our shows has gone across the Atlantic at very remunerative prices.  Prices upon the whole were good even for mediocre specimens of the class for shows under championship class.  So far as the requisites for a show dog are concerned, there are very few really bad specimens in Cornwall.