Next to toy Poms I will mention toy Schipperkes

Next to toy Poms I will mention toy Schipperkes

Next to toy Poms I will mention toy Schipperkes

Next to toy Poms I will mention toy Schipperkes, because, though they are not as yet so fashionable, and probably never will be, they resemble Poms in many ways. As house dogs they are eminently desirable, wonderfully clean and well-mannered, and like the Pom in cleverness and fidelity to one person, while they are much hardier and easier to rear and keep in good condition. They are not at all nervous dogs; but wildly full of life and greedy for exercise; their incessant activity vying with that of the merry little Spitz. They are decidedly "barky" and exceedingly inquisitive, good travellers, and dogs which settle themselves down anywhere, and are content so long as they are with the favourite "human" they specially possess. Schipperkes are extremely heavy dogs for their size, and quite a wee one will weigh four times as much as a Pom which hardly looks smaller. Both breeds require a meat diet and plenty of good food, which they work off by their active ways; but the bulk of the Schip's meals should be larger. As a rule, Schips are very good-tempered dogs, and, like Poms, sharp followers at heel. They are, however, pugnacious little things, and have only the grand forbearance of bigger dogs to thank for the prevention of many a tragedy due to uppish self-assertion. Black is their colour, and taillessness their most intimate quality; some, we are told, are born tailless, most are not! Brown and fawn Schips are common enough in Belgium, the home of the race; and we have now not infrequently classes for them over here; while whites, which are really fawns, exist, occurring in litters now and then from a throwing back to some distant ancestor, and are really pretty dogs, though I confess the piquancy and charm of the blacks, with their sharply-pricked, thin ears, their rounded-off flank, hard, shiny coats, and dense masses of mane and culotte, the Schip's distinctive points, are to me lost in an "off-coloured" dog. Their faults, as toys, are soft, silky coats, toyish or apple or badly-shaped heads (that universal stumbling block), "Pommy," quality of coat (there is no blemish on a Schip's escutcheon greater than a putative cross with a Pom), white hairs or markings, ears which are rounded at the tip instead of pointed, too big, or badly carried, short faces, unlevel jaws, spread feet, crooked or distorted legs, and long backs. The whole appearance of the dog should be very smart and cobby, intensely alert, and altogether clean and well put together, qualities difficult to describe, but which "sautent aux yeux."