Evening star., 1938-02-13

n AYOR LA GUARDlA is
nu carrying on campaign
v to prevent unleashed dogs
4 4 from running about the
streets. The city is plastered
with confusing signs which
read: The Law-Clean Your
Sidewalk-Curb Your Dog" and
inspectors are being sent from
house to house, to check on
licenses. thereby somewhat dis
couraging casual city dog owners.
But this week the New York shops
have been filled with real dogs,
stuffed dogs, chocolate dogs, dia-
mond dogs and even life-sized sur
realistic dogs made of rope, es-
cortlng wax ladies in tweeds. The
newspapers have run pages of dog
stories and photographs, and all
this superb build-up has culmi-
mated in Madison Square Garden
with the opening of the annual
Westminster Kennel Club Show.
The hotels are packed with
canine visitors. No harassed
mothers of debutantes have come
nearer nervous collapse than these
owners and handlers. Lest the
initiated think that showing dog
is just showing a dog, here are
few facts.
Two months before the show the
handlers start working on the dogs.
Every day, depending upon their
breed, their coats are clipped,
pulled, plucked. oiled or chalked.
Twice a day they are put in a show
position. which is legs stiff, heads
and tails up. This is done with all
the other dogs in the kennels run
ming around, SO the show pros
poets will be accustomed to con-
fusion. They are fed daily fine
vitamin diet of raw meat and eggs.
They are given just the right
amount of exercise to keep them
muscled up. Their behavior is
scrupulously watched. and when
they are put to bed at night, they
are wrapped up in turkish towels to
keep the oil in their coats.
Our informant, who runs a Sue
cessful dog shop here, showed us
several prospective prize winners in
the last stages of preparation.
. There was sniffy little wire-haired
fox terrier being chalked within an
inch Of his life. Bedlingtons, we
found, are chalked. too, but only
on their long top notches and on
their woolly legs. There was
poodle being clipped in fantastic
fashion, and a quivering little cairn
terrier was having her nails mani
cured with clippers, files and
scissors. Those dogs who had not
had distemper were being given
temporary innoculations. Only
Lloyd's of London will insure the
valuable ones.
They had in this shop two Afri-
can Barkless Basenjis which will be
exhibited during the dog show. B.
Hamilton Rogers imported them
from England, where, in turn, they
had been brought from the Belgian
Congo. They are about the size of
and Irish terrier. smooth haired,
chestnut and white in color. Their
tails are longish, but they curl up
tight over their backs. They growl a
deep, chesty growl and they howl
like a coyote but they never bark.
This is not a structural deficiency,
for they have been examined by
veterinarians, who have found their
larynxes the same as other dogs.
The native chiefs in the Congo use
them for hunting antelope, and in
order to hear the dogs they tie
gourds around their loins.
A RMED with endless data and
= feeling quite an expert in the
dog world, we went to the opening
morning session of the dog show,
only to find that what We had
learned in dog lore we had lost in
knowledge of human nature. We
have always been under the impress
sion that ladies in tweed skirts, who
walked great deal, owned Scotties
and that Pomeranians belonged
also to ladies, usually past middle
age, whose figures denote the in
stincts Of gourmet and who are
normally done up in hats flaming
with osprey and fur coats heavily
decorated with deep mauve orchids.
We also cherished the belief that
bloodhounds and English bulldogs
were essentially mems dogs.
Well, this is not the case, at least
not this year. The Pomeranians
have been adopted by the Irish.
Ladies of bulk, with simple clothes
and mighty brogues were picking
their darlings out of boxes, some of