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S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 9 0 bibliophile, and yet looking at the photographs, it is shocking to see what has become of some breeds. Most of the coursing hounds and retrievers in the old pictures look much as they do today, with the exception of the Labrador. Both books show an athletic, balanced Labrador just like today's hunting Lab, but quite unlike today's show-ring specimen, the amiable, tank-like slob of a dog that most resembles a black bowling bowl that would instantly sink under its own excessive weight. Many of the terriers and spaniels of today sport coats that make them little more than animated dust mops, certainly not the kinds of coats that would be conducive to a productive day of hunting, the kinds of coats that were the standard in 1921. But what is most shocking is the change in the companion breeds and in the breeds that once earned their keep in ways that are no longer fashionable or legal and are now bred solely as companions. The bulldog of 1921 was already heavier and more cumbersome than the original bull-baiting ball of tenacious fury the British prided themselves on, but it was still leggier and more athletic than the sorry, clunky, gasping, snorting joke of today. The bull terrier of 1921 looked like what it was: a lean and supreme dog- and rat-killing machine right out of Bar Sinister, but the only resemblance that remains today is the white color. And the dog that was once considered the king of the working breeds has practically vanished in its original niche. The German shepherd then was leggy and regal and healthy; go to a dog show today and you will see specimens with a topline so angulated that the hind legs cross each other at the hock with each step, dogs no more capable of performing the police and army work von Stephanitz intended them for than an NFL linebacker is of becoming a jockey. It's no wonder that most police departments have stopped using shepherds and switched to the Belgian malinois. Or, for certain tasks, mutts from the pound. I could go on. C ondensing a wealth of history into a few words, the Industrial Revolution, coupled with the Revolutions of 1848 across continental Europe, spawned a newly affluent middle class, and those who were dog-obsessed began their own revolution, cementing breed traits in dogs that already existed in some form or another, or creating new breeds entirely. By the end of the 19th century dog mania had reached fever pitch: the first dog show in Great Britain took place in 1891, and on the continent, particularly in Germany, organizations were being created to improve and cement the traits of the newly created breeds. Let's compare two breeds that emerged roughly around that time— one that already existed and one that was created out of whole cloth. In Great Britain, the Labrador already had a following among the aristocracy, with names like the Earl of Malmesbury and the Duke of Buccleuch breeding a dog very like today's hunting Lab. By 1891, when Charles Cruft created his show, the Lab was already on its way to becoming one of the most popular breeds of all time. The Duchess of York (later HRH the Queen Mother) loved Labs enough to be formally photographed with one of her favorites, a yellow, sitting at ease in a chair while the Duchess stands formally in attendance, just like any Lab of today. As a result of the dog's early popularity and versatility, the Lab has one of the largest gene pools of any breed, but it is still a closed gene pool. In Germany, a group of dog- loving hunters set out to create a versatile hunting dog. Led by Freiherr (Baron) von Zedlitz und Neukirch, they crossed an English pointer with a now extinct variety of the German hunting poodle and created a breed known as the pudelpointer. Then trouble arose. The Baron believed in the concept of an open gene pool; his fellow club members did not, and the result was that the Baron took his puppies and went home to create his own breed. He added the now extinct stichelhaar, the Deutsch kurzhaar (the German shorthaired pointer) and perhaps some griffon, but—and this is the key—he did not close his gene pool. In fact, he took as his motto, "Take the good where you find it; breed as you like, but be honest about it; let the results be your guide." In other words, if you need to go outside your own creation to keep your creation viable, do so. One of the natural results of this was that until the Nazi party came to power and ardent hunter Herman Göring pronounced it "Germany's hunting dog," the drahthaar was looked down upon by German hunters as a bastard non-breed. One of the other results was—and still is—excellent health. T here are many universities and organizations that study and track genetic diseases in canines, but for purposes of uniform comparison, comparing apples to apples, I will use only the data from the University of Cambridge. And to be absolutely clear, by "genetic disease" I mean a heritable disease caused by a mutation or alteration in both the structure and the function of a gene or multiple genes. In theory, because the Labrador has such a large gene pool, it should be a very sound and healthy dog. Yet according to the University of Cambridge, the Lab is either prone