the one dog mentioned throughout in
connection with all of them has been our poor old, much maligned
wire-hair. He has been the scapegoat, the subject of all this
brilliancy and eloquence, and were he capable of understanding the
language of the human, we may feel sure much amusement would be his.

There are several breeds that are more trimmed than the wire-hair,
and that might well be quoted before him in this connection. There
is a vast difference between legitimate trimming, and what is called
"faking." All dogs with long or wire-hair or rough coats naturally
require more attention, and more grooming than those with short smooth
coats. For the purposes of health and cleanliness it is absolutely
necessary that such animals should be frequently well groomed. There
is no necessity, given a wire-hair with a good and proper coat, to
use anything but an ordinary close-toothed comb, a good hard brush,
and an occasional removal of long old hairs on the head, ears, neck,
legs, and belly, with the finger and thumb. The Kennel Club
regulations for the preparation of dogs for exhibition are perfectly
clear on this subject, and are worded most properly. They say that
a dog "shall be disqualified if any part of his coat or hair has been
cut, clipped, singed, or rasped down by any substance, or if any of
the new or fast coat has been removed by pulling or plucking in any
manner," and that "no comb shall be used which has a cutting or
rasping edge." There is no law, therefore, against the removal of
old coat by finger and thumb, and anyone who keeps long-haired dogs
knows that it is essential to the dog's health that there should be
none.

It is in fact most necessary in certain cases, at certain times, to
pull old coat out in this way. Several terriers with good coats are
apt to grow long hair very thickly round the neck and ears, and unless
this is removed when it gets old, the neck and ears are liable to
become infested with objectionable little slate-coloured nits, which
will never be found as long as the coat is kept down when necessary.
Bitches in whelp and after whelping, although ordinarily good-coated,
seem to go all wrong in their coats unless properly attended to in
this way, and here again, if you wish to keep your bitch free from
skin trouble, it is a necessity, in those cases which need it, to
use finger and thumb.

If the old hair is pulled out only when it is old, there is no
difficulty about it, and no hurt wha