The New York herald., 1921-04-10
LESSONS TAUGHT
BY CANINE SHOW
HELD AT DETROIT
Fewer Breeds and Better
Division of Prizes
Necessary.
ny FRANK r. DOLE.

ny FRANK r. DOLE.
Despite the absence of many exhib-
itors who formerly were prominently
identified with the exhibition. the sixth
annual Detroit dog show held last Mon
day and Tuesday was successful one.
1t was the last show on the Western
circuit, and it drew q quality entry. In
the popular breeds there were no less
than fifty-eight shepherd dogs. fifty
Boston terriers and thirty-four Airedale
terriers. AS the entire entry numbered
i19. the three breeds mentioned made up
one-third of the list. This indicates the
wisdom of holding shows for popular
breeds. say from twenty to thirty
breeds. instead Of the usual number of
fifty to fifty-five. 1t would save
great deal of expense and the club could
afford to give more prize money to the
breeds that really make the show a sue
cess 1t also would enable the club TO
hire the best professional judges.
There is a feeling among the profess
sional handlers that there should be an
entire change as regards the cash prizes
offered at most of these shows. One
prominent professional handler told me
that the last five shows had brought
him loss of 81 900. Time was when
this handler after circuit of the same
shows would finish with profit of
5000 or more, and the owners of these
dogs received enough prize money to
pay the handlers fees and expenses.
Now, however. the owners after in
curing great expense in breeding and
getting their dogs ready for exhibitions
get very little return for their effort.
There is no question that the owners
and professional handlers should re-
ceive greater consideration at the hands
of the bench show committees in tho
matter of prize monev.
The special for the best dog in the
show brought together a number of rep
resentative dogs of various breeds. The
competition, after a lot of sorting out.
narrowed down to a wire haired fox
terrier bitch. Aberfoyle Trevelac Tit Bit
owned by c. L. Gilliland of Chester, Pa,
and the we'll known Airedale terrier
Champion Polam Maxim, owned by Nor
man Mckenzie of Regina, British Column
bia. Both owners were at the ringside.
Two Wonderful Dogs.
Although Polam Maxim is 6 years old
he never looked better. He was Put
down in wonderful form and Bert Swain
the Canadian professional who always
shows him, deserved a lot of credit
Many critics have claimed that he Is
somewhat coarse in head and shrunk In
body. I went over this wonderful ter
Ier very closely at this show, and
must say that he is just as good as he
ever was in every particular. Good as
he was on that day he was unable to
stop the wire haired fox terrier, another
dog about which there has been much
discussion. She also was shown to the
hour by Percy Roberts. Mr.. Hopton,
who was judging. gave them both a
thorough examination and finally de-
cided in favor of the fox terrier. Let me
say that they are two grand dogs, and
the decision could have gone either way
without doing either an injustice.
The wolfhound entry at Chicago and
Detroit proves that 1t is not necessary
to have a specially club Judge to Of
iciate. At Chicago there We're no less
than thirty wolfhounds the largest entry
this year at any show. The breed was
assigned to a man who never had been
identified with the breed and to my
knowledge never owned one. This man.
r. S. Bennett of Plymouth, Mich, had
the good judgment TO refuse to judge
them and they We're given to &. q.
Hopton, who happened TO be at the show.
The fact remains that when the ex-
hibitors made this large entry they were
under the impression that Mr.. Bennett
was to judge the breed, and evidently
that fact did not worry them in the
least. In my opinion the large entry Of
wolfhounds also was due in a great
measure to the fact that this magnificent
breed is very popular in the middle West
There was a great rumpus made by
some OF .he exhibitors because Mr.. Ben
nett declined to Judge and | understand
the whole matter Is TO be laid before
the American Kennel Club including the
letter that Mrl Bennett received from
the superintendent OF the show previous
to its opening. Mr.. Bennett, by the way
judged English bulldogs and French
bulldogs at the Chicago show most ac-
ceptably.
Sensational Puppy.
The Russian wolfhounds at Detroit
were a high class lot. The best OF them
was sensational puppy Cresta o. VAL
ley Farm, "A very typical hound with n
good head. nice bone and the most won
derful headquarters | ever saw on a
ninc-month- puppy This dog was
bought in Germany when IL was only
three months old by Miss Lois Kellogg
of Chicago. who is now half owner or
the o. Valley Farm Kennels. Miss Kel-
logg in speaking about the purchase
said that she inspected over a hundred
Russian wolfhounds before she selected
this puppy. II Is quite evident that Miss
Kellogg has a natural eye for selecting
prize winning dog in this breed.
Cresta Is one OF the most typical Rus