This section is from the book "British Dogs: Their Varieties, History, Characteristics, Breeding, Management, And Exhibition", by Hugh Dalziel. Also available from Amazon: British Dogs.
The German boarhound is fairly entitled to a place here on the lines we have laid down, namely, to include dogs not strictly British when frequently met with at our shows, and, by the attention paid to them by the English philokuon, may be supposed to be under process of naturalization.
From an early period in the history of our shows, specimens of the immense German boarhound have frequently graced the benches, and had the same encouragement been given to them as to the dachshund, we would now have large classes of them; but, hitherto, they have had to form part and parcel of that olla podrida, the variety or foreign dog class, the most difficult of all to judge, and wherein decisions are almost invariably eccentric and puzzling.
Many dogs shown as German boarhounds would, I am disposed to think, be more correctly classed as great Danes; and to that ancient breed, I believe, the German boarhound owes much.
I do not profess to write of this breed from an extensive experience, or with a profound knowledge; and inquiries into its history on my part have been unsatisfactory.
From all I have been able to discover, and from observations at home and continental international exhibitions, I feel strongly convinced that the dog is of no special purity, but rather represents selections from many stocks used and found suitable for certain purposes.
Believing, as I do, that this is the case with nearly every breed of dog, it raises no prejudices in my mind against the one under consideration.
The Ulmer appears to be but another name for the boarhound, although it may refer more specially to a sub-variety of the breed for which, I understand, Ulm is somewhat celebrated.
The Leonberg is another new claimant for recognition, and is also an ally; or, perhaps, more correctly, an alloy of this breed with Newfoundland and other varieties.
The German breeders have themselves in contemplation, I believe, to arrange a standard of excellence and to re-name the breed the German mastiff.
There is, I think, much to be said in favour of this, for most of them, and particularly those I have seen selected by German judges for prize honours, exhibited more mastiff characteristics from an English point of view than hound properties.
All this shows a haziness surrounding the breed which, I frankly confess, I have not, so far, been able to penetrate, and it was rendered none the less dense by the variety of types among the thirty odd specimens shown at Hanover, in 1879, by native breeders. Among these there was great diversity in size, style, and colour. The reds and brindles seemed to be most appreciated by the judges. Some of the brindles were remarkably rich in colour, and markedly so a fine upstanding and open-countenanced dog called Caesar, who took premier honours, as he had also done at the Berlin Show in 1878. There were also, however, mouse colours, blues, and blue mottles, the latter essentially a great Dane colour; and one, a bitch called Tigress, the property of H.S.H. Prince Albert Solms, was black and white spotted, pretty evenly so, and not unlike a gigantic Dalmatian with the spots exaggerated.
Regarding this peculiarity of marking, it may be well to observe that the well-known writer, Youatt, recognises the Dalmatian and the great Dane as identical, except in size, an opinion from which I differ, for reasons given elsewhere.
In general appearance the German boarhound shows a good deal of the mastiff, but is not so massive as our best modern specimens. The whole head, and particularly the jaw, is longer, and this is added to in appearance by the absurd practice of mutilation of the ears. When left on the ears fall neatly, and are rather smaller than in our mastiff. The general build and carriage shows a combination of strength and agility, and the cut up flank is absent or but slight. The stern is not carried so gaily as in our hounds, and he entirely lacks those flews, long folding ears, and dewlap characteristics of our slow hounds. The coat is short, thick, but soft and close, and on many specimens I have observed dew-claws. I merely mention this latter fact because so many will still persist in claiming these appendages as peculiar to certain breeds, although very little attention to facts would show that they occasionally appear in all.
It has been publicly stated that specimens of this dog have grown to the extraordinary height of over 40in. It is said a dog of this breed, that won at the International Show at Hamburgh, measured 3ft. 4½in. at the shoulder. Such statements are so absurd that they scarcely require contradiction, and are best met by giving actual measurements of acknowledged good specimens, and this, by the courtesy of H.S.H. Prince Albert Solms, Braunfels, Prussia, I am enabled to do, and here append measurements of German boarhounds.
Prince Albert Solm's Cora: Age, 4 years; weight, 121½lb.; height at shoulder, 28in.; length from nose to set on of tail, 51½in.; length of tail, 22in.; girth of chest, 33in.; girth of loin, 26½in.; girth of head, 19½in.; length of head from occiput to tip of nose, 11in.; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 12in.
Prince Albert Solm's Nero: Age, 3 years; weight, 1321bs.; height at shoulder, 29in.; length from nose to set on of tail, 48in.; length of tail, 22in.; girth of chest, 36in.; girth of loin, 31in.; girth of head, 22in.; length of head from occiput to tip of nose, 12in.; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 12in.
Prince Albert Solm's Sultan: Age, 3 years; weight, 110lbs.; height at shoulder, 28½in.; length from nose to set on of tail, 49in.; length of tail, 19in.; girth of chest, 33½in.; girth of loin, 28in.; girth of head, 21¼in.; length of head from occiput to tip of nose, 11in.; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 11 ½in.
Measurements of celebrated Ulmer Dogs (Bavarian Boarhounds):
Rudolf M. Leo's Sultan I.: Age, 3 years; weight, 1801b.; height at shoulder, 34in.; length from nose to set on of tail, 58in.; length of tail, 22½in.; girth of chest, 38¾in.; girth of loin, 30iin.; girth of head, 24½in.; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 5½in.; colour, yellow with black spots.
Rudolf M. Leo's Xantipphe I.: Age, 2 years; weight, 1261b.; height at shoulder, 32in.; length from nose to set on of tail, 54in.; length of tail, 20¾in.; girth of chest, 36½in.; girth of loin, 26½in.; girth of head, 21½in.; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 5½in.; colour, black, with yellow spots.
Mr. H. M. Savage's Blitz: Age, 7 months and 20 days; height at at shoulder, 25in.; length from nose to set on of tail, 42in.; length of tail, 17½in.; girth of chest, 28in.; girth of loin, 22in.; girth of head,
10¼in.; girth of forearm, 8¼in.; length of head from occiput to tip of nose, 9½in.; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 7in. j girth of neck, 16iin.; colour, pure slate, with white extremities.
Mr. H. M. Savage's Lena-. Age, 7 months and 1 day; height at shoulder, 26½in.; length from nose to set on of tail, 45¼in.; length of tail, 20in.; girth of chest, 28in.; girth of loin, 22½in.; girth of head, 10in.; girth of forearm, 9¾in.; length of head from occiput to tip of nose, 9½in.; girth of muzzle midway between eyes and tip of nose, 7¼in.; girth of neck, 18in.; colour, pure slate, with white extremities.
 
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