It is well to advert here to the idea so prevalent among the inexperienced - and not without believers among exhibitors - that judges are often swayed by the owners of dogs; or, in other words, that the dog of a well-known exhibitor has greater chances of winning than his equal, or even superior, whose owner is a comparative stranger.

It is a deplorable fact that there is a foundation for this belief, for in many instances judges who lacked confidence in their ability to select rightly have gone to the wrong end of the chain as the best way out of difficulty. But this is not done with dishonest intent. On the contrary, the judge may feel that he can come nearer justice by giving the ribbon to some well-known exhibitor who always has good ones, than by following his own fancy, which he realizes might be for a bad one.

Perhaps relatively fewer cases of this are occurring now than in the past, yet it is plainly evident that there is still great chance for improvement, and the sooner show managements realize this the better for them and for the dog, whose improvements should be paramount to self-interest. Clearly a man who has not had the experience to warrant him in undertaking the task of judging should not accept the position. Manifestly, also, the exhibitor who spends time and money in getting a good kennel together has a right to expect that his dogs will be judged by a competent person. And, for obvious reasons, the man who has inferior dogs desires inferior judges; while the better the judges the smaller the chances of a poor specimen getting to the front.

All this is evidently duly appreciated by exhibitors who should rightly be the most influential, for there is a rapidly growing disposition on their part to have their dogs placed under qualified men only, they appreciating fully that the incompetent judges make improvement well-nigh impossible.

Such being the disposition of exhibitors to-day, and since the remedy lies largely with them, the fault of incompetency in judges must dissipate steadily and rapidly; and it is scarcely necessary to add that it is the bounden duty of all having interest in the matter to hasten its decline.

Before leaving exhibitors there is yet an important point to be touched upon. Beyond dispute one of the most potent causes of the great mortality among puppies is an inherent weakness transmitted from either the sire or dam - and most often the former, in the selection of which long pedigrees and prize-winning records are so generally deemed the first essentials. The questions naturally suggest themselves, Are not successes on the bench often much too dearly bought? and are not frequent exhibitions prejudicial to the health of the animals shown? Do they not lessen their value as breeders?

To the large non-sporting dogs of both sexes there is certainly danger if they appear often or are kept long on the bench, for as a matter of fact many of the most noted prize-winners among them are comparatively worthless for breeding purposes. Upon these varieties the hardships of shows and journeys in the cars seem to tell the most sorely; moreover, it is not only not easy to keep them in condition, but extremely difficult to bring them back after they have much fallen off.

But one of the reasons why shows prove so injurious to these varieties appears in the common method of conditioning by means of drugs. Such methods, perhaps, prove satisfactory with most dogs for about a year possibly a little longer - and they show up in good form. Sooner or later, however, the fact dawns upon their owners that to put flesh on them is more difficult than it once was, and thereafter "treatment" is begun earlier in the season, and much larger doses of medicine are given. But at last there comes a time when nature rebels or is no longer able to respond. Overfeeding first weakened the digestive system; soon it became disordered or diseased; and with these changes every important organ declined in power. Then nutrition suffered and the blood became rapidly impoverished; and this point once reached the evidences of decay are too plain to be mistaken.

The poor dogs' winning days over they are retired from the bench, but not from the stud, for which they are now well-nigh worthless. From the day that the cramming system commenced their value lessened steadily, and long before their retirement they were absolutely unfit for breeding purposes, because of constitutional impairment the inevitable concomitant of this fatal conditioning process.

Doubtless there are breeds of dogs which suffer less from it than others; some may even escape injury and remain on the bench for many years, but for large breeds there is no immunity - sooner or later the penalty must be enforced. No one well informed will attempt to underestimate the value of prize-winning records. The public generally recognize the fact that if a breeder has dogs which he honestly believes can win at shows he will not hesitate to exhibit them; therefore, would-be purchasers rightly seek the kennels of the most successful exhibitors, and the latter try to retain their prestige, but in doing so often ruin their dogs.

The moral of this is : Remove a dog from the bench, "for good and all," on appearance of the first signs which seem to indicate that his constitution is being undermined. Show the largest only at fairly long intervals - never for several consecutive weeks - and retire them permanently within two years.

There remain to be considered a few requirements which should be invariably met by show managements. And the first to suggest itself is, that the movable benches be thoroughly disinfected after every show. This is absolutely the most effective means of prevention of contagion, and those in authority who fail to provide it, mildly speaking, are deserving the contempt of every lover of the dog.

To make ample provisions against fire is another important requirement. There have been but few instances, and possibly no more than one, where fires have broken out in dog shows and destroyed life, but the horrors of that one are fresh in the minds of exhibitors, and they, at least, will appreciate the necessity of every precaution against like accident.

In all places in which shows are held there are many "call firemen " or what are commonly termed "subs," and as goodly a number of them as possible should be among the helpers, and always a part of the night-force. Knowing the special purpose for which they are hired they will of course locate the hydrants, see that all the hose is conveniently placed, the fire buckets kept filled, etc.

Man never values nearly as highly as he ought his eyesight or his hearing until he has met with a loss; so, also, is he reluctant to provide against fire before he has been burned out or fiercely threatened; consequently some managements may think this precaution unnecessary, but many exhibitors will differ widely from them, and if they desire protection for their dogs they have only to insist upon it and it must be furnished.

Rails in front of the benches are by no means a familiar sight, yet they should invariably stand before all large dogs at least. Dogs, like members of the highest order of animals, are occasionally erratic, and some that are truly lamb-like in the kennels are very fractious while on the bench. Considering that harm might be done, also that visitors themselves must feel safer where this precaution is taken, it would seem as though bench show managements ought not to require much urging to put up rails, - about two feet from the stalls - and certainly none will object who have once stood defendants in a suit for damages for a dog-bite.

Cards printed in large type and bearing the words "Do not handle Strange Dogs "should appear at every hand in all buildings, to remind visitors, many of whom seem to forget the fact, that dogs can bite.

Quite a common error at shows is much too high benches for the largest dogs. These when loaded down with fat or well along with pup are about as capable of jumping as a man carrying an anvil, consequently in getting in and out of high stalls they are much strained in the back and possibly otherwise injured.

Most people when they have diphtheria or other infectious disease in their homes hang about the sick-room cloths wet with carbolic acid, or place here and there saucers filled with the chloride of lime, thinking that thereby they kill the germs of disease floating in the air. As a matter of fact these agents so used have no action whatsoever upon disease germs, and simply render the air still more impure.

So it is with many of the disinfectants used at shows; they give off a pungent odor, but affect disease germs no more than a blank cartridge would a grizzly. These so-called disinfectants, however, are not objectionable solely because they are worthless for the purpose for which they are sold; they are really injurious to dogs as well as man when used freely as at shows, for some of their elements rise and float in the air and render it highly irritating - a fact of which no old exhibitor needs to be assured, for he has suffered too often from stuffiness of the nose, dryness of the throat and other evidences of inflammation of the air-passages, while in dogs their ill effects have been manifested by hoarseness and bloodshot eyes.

Economy as well as utility considered, it seems as though show managements would do well to prepare their own deodorizer and disinfectant. And as good an agent as any is the permanganate of potassium, two pounds of which added to water will make thirty gallons of as efficient disinfectant - safety considered - as can be obtained anywhere; although, by the way, manufacturers of patented preparations will stoutly assert to the contrary. This solution is odorless and therefore a vast improvement on many of the reputed disinfectants, no small number of which are absolutely valueless as such, merely substituting as they do one odor for another.

And since the fine particles of wood that arise from the rings cause much irritation of the air-passages, authorities are wise, and spare both dog and man much discomfort, who see to it that the sawdust is slightly dampened with this solution.