Animals: Drawing Room Dogs

Dog styles change rapidly. Yesterday’s styles may be observed in the stables, today’s in the drawing room. Now declining from the height of fashion is the German Shepherd. He is heading from the hearth rug to the harness room.

Most likely person to save the Shepherd dog’s vogue is a Van Dyked, pince-nezzed little man who stepped gingerly down a gangplank into the U. S. last fortnight and headed for Madison, N. J., where he assumed his judicial ermine (not his usual German sporting togs and feathered Alpine hat but a grey business suit) at the stylish Morris and Essex Kennel Club show. He, Capt. Max von Stephanitz, one-time cavalry officer in the German army, was the man responsible for the social climb of the Shepherd dog from its lowly position as a German field worker into the world’s social register. Thirty-one years ago Capt. von Stephanitz formed his famed Verein für deutsche Schäferhunde,watched it grow from a little local club to an organization with expansive headquarters in Munich, branches all over the world.

The world’s best known and most respected judge of Shepherds, Capt. von Stephanitz has often had his selections sharply criticized. Some fanciers say that instead of considering the virtues of the dog before him he thinks more of its influence on the future of the breed. This, because the seiger (winner) is in great demand for breeding purposes. He is held responsible for the fact that the German Shepherd has been bred longer in proportion to height, has a longer stride, is sturdier.

All of these characteristics are visible in the dog which Judge von Stephanitz designated at Madison as best-of-breed (and by this judgment, style-setter for 1930) : Champion Utz von Haus Schutting of Mardex Kennels, Ardsley, N. Y. Champion Utz is a long, low, dark dog with powerful forequarters, splendid. It was a friendly sniff which Champion Utz gave his judge. He had smelled him before, last year in Germany, when Judge von Stephanitz once before pronounced him seiger.

German Shepherd fanciers are annoyed when the breed is referred to as “police dogs.” “P. D.” is a degree conferred on Shepherds only after they have passed a field test of 24 exercises, including food offered by strangers, capture of a person pretending to be a criminal.

The four breeds of dog currently regarded by U. S. dealers as “most fashionable” are all terriers: Scottish, Cairn, Sealyham, wire-haired fox. Most of the best-bred Scotties in the U. S. last fortnight foregathered on a terrace of Mr. & Mrs. Edward F. Button’s Long Island estate and permitted Dr. Clarence Cook Little, onetime president of the University of Michigan, now managing director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, to compare their little black perfections in the Specialty Show of the Scottish Terrier Club, No. 1event of the U. S. Scotty season. While the owners sipped tea and talked dog-shop, Dr. Little chose Watchman of Monagh Lea as No. 1 U. S. Scotty. This dog’s value: $3,000. His prize: $15 and a silver cup. World’s best Scotty is Heather Necessity, best-of-breed at London’s last Crystal palace show.