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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Monday, August 30, 2010

"something about foreign dogs"

A little while ago I posted an excerpt from an older book that I thought spoke in a patronizing fashion toward the non-English-preferred dog. I've another, and this book has everything - wariness of the foreign! too many quotation marks! namedropping! And a great name to boot:

All About Dogs: A Book for Doggy People, by Charles Henry Lane (London and New York: John Lane, 1900).

So that being said, let's go to page 291 and Chapter XVI, entitled - you guessed it - Something About Foreign Dogs.

* * *
I think, perhaps, it will be best for me to say something about these, although my friend, Mr. Edwin Brough, was wont to call them by the generic term of " Wild Beasts," particularly those belonging to our mutual friend, Mr. W. K. Taunton, who for very many years had one of the best collections of rare breeds of foreign dogs, I should say, to be met with in Europe, comprising specimens from the Arctic Regions, China, Australia, India, Africa and other distant parts of the world.
* * *
Yeah, those places. Those not English places. Hrmmph. What are these dogs so beyond the pale? They include the Norwegian Elk-Hound, the Persian Greyhound, the Afghan Sheep Dog, and the "Thibetan Sheep Dogs," about which Mr. Lane says this:

* * *
Thibet Sheep Dogs—A breed I have not often seen, but which is really a handsome and noble looking one is the Great Thibet Sheep Dog, of which I remember H. R. H. the Prince of Wales had a good specimen at Sandringham some years since, which I can only describe as having a Collielike body with a thick under and over coat, but not so profuse as with our collies, and a head combining the expression of Newfoundland, Mastiff and Bloodhound, large, pendulous ears, heavy lips and jaws, and great dignity, and even ferocity in appearance. From the rough life they live, with very rough people, I have heard from those who have travelled in Thibet, these dogs are very awkward customers to tackle, and often make things very unpleasant for travellers and strangers, but I have no doubt they would make excellent guards, and have a very distinguished appearance as companions.
* * *
Hrmmph.

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