100 Years Ago

[Souff]

The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 14 December 1910

THE KENNEL.

By W. C. T.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A.I.C. (Glen Innes) - I will make the necessary inquiries and advise you later on.

A. A. (Erskineville) - Very sorry to hear of your loss.

Anxious (Drake) - Marks such as you describe are not uncommon. If the bitch suffers no inconvenience she is best left alone. You need not be alarmed of it developing into cancer.

A. R. (Auckland) - Letter and enclosure to hand.

R. W. A. (Newcastle) - Yes, a person can visit a kennel infected with distemper, carry the disease away on his clothing, and pass it on to dog.

NOTES.

It is on the cards that the Ladies Kennel Club will before long, announce an afternoon parade of dogs on the lines of that held at Rushcutter Bay last year. There is also a possibility of the Fox-terrier Club being asked to hold a Saturday afternoon show. It is said that distemper has not invaded the leading Sydney and Newcastle kennels therefore a big number of terriers would support a parade if held in suitable grounds.

M. Nopenaire, a French wool buyer resident in Melbourne is bringing to that city a number of trained "police" dogs.

The field spaniel, Union Jack (imp) is a much travelled dog. This year he has been successfully shown by his owner, Mrs. Elliott, of Melbourne, at Sydney, in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. Union Jack's first prize wins in the season number 55, which is, I think, a record for a show dog of any breed in Australia.

The Kennel Club of New South Wales has had printed a number of handsome challenge certificates suitable for framing.

Mr Arthur Albert writes: I have to announce the death of my black Cocker Spaniel puppy, Kingsboro Spanker, winner of novice and puppy classes at the Kennel Club show a few weeks ago. The cause of his death was distemper, contracted at that show. My red dog, K. Rufus, also caught it there, and it is only through constant care and attention that his life was saved. The disease, spread through my kennels with the result that I lost a whole litter of pups by K Rufus ex K Twilight, and several by K Rufus ex Ipswich Lady Banker. It is time that the Kennel Club of N.S.W. and other clubs holding shows insisted on veterinary inspections at the proper hour and seeing that no dogs showing the slightest trace of disease be passed. The death of these dogs is a very great loss to me, and if breeders and exhibitors are to take the risk of losing valuable dogs for the paltry prizes offered, I think the club should take more stringent measures to ensure the non-entry to their shows of diseased dogs. Otherwise they cannot be surprised or complain of the poor number of entries.

One of Mr W. Miller's best bull terriers recently lost an eye as the result of a kick by a horse.

Lieutenant Colonel James Irving, M.R.C.V.S., London, who died recently in Brisbane, was one of the best in liked fanciers in the northern State. He was several times president of the Queensland Kennel Club and visitors from other States will well remember the cordial reception they received from him. Colonel Irving, who was greatly interested in horses, was a fairly regular visitor to the Sydney Royal Show.

Mr Arthur Albert, of Erskineville, reports the sale of a little Yorkshire terrier dog by the lately deceased Sprightly, ex Kingshorn Dainty Dot to Mr W. E. Smalley, of Gvmpie. Another pup from the same litter went to Mr J. Kelly, of Rockhampton.

Mr R. A. Musgrave has induced Mr R. J. Wilson to part with that promising Fox terrier Duncraggen Dalesman, a fashionably bred dog, by Oxo of Doncaster (imp) ex Doncaster Dimorah (imp). Dalesman's brothers - D. Dunkirk, Dunira, Defiance and Kenwood Velocity - have done remarkably well in the show ring.

The Kennel Club committee met on the 6th inst. at Victoria-chambers, 63 Elizabeth street. Mr P. R. Russell was chairman and others present were Major Cribben, Messrs J. Borthwick, J. L. Hughes, W. Jeffreys, G. Johnson, A. Lamb and G. S. Chapman (secretary). It was reported that several framed photographs of dogs had been presented to the club. The following prefixes were granted - Kafulu to Mr W. A. Cosgrove and Kamilaroi to Mr R. O. Beale. Mr L. R. Jones, of Double Bay, was elected a member of the club. The question of a Fox-terrier's pedigree was before the committee and it was decided not to recognise the same. Arrangements for the smoke concert were completed. Tickets can be obtained from club members and from the secretary. Fuller particulars of the concert appear on the poultry and dog business page.

DISTEMPER.

There are few Sydney and suburban Kennels at the present time whose inmates are free from sickness of some sort. The chief cause of ailment is mange, influenza or the dreaded distemper. In my own kennels for the first time in thirty years I had an outbreak of distemper. There was no difficulty in diagnosing the malady for there were present the infallible symptoms of a hacking, husky cough, accompanied by copious discharge of matter from the nostrils. How I cured my fox terriers may prove of benefit to other persons whose dogs are affected by this dire disease. To a teaspoonful of butter I added a fair amount of common salt. This mixture was given early on Tuesday morning, and again the same night, followed each time an hour later by a dessert spoonful of salad oil. The effect of this treatment was to thoroughly cleanse the dog inside. Next day, Wednesday, each dog was given a pill, about the size of an ordinary marble, composed of flowers of sulphur and the best castor oil. Two or three times a day the nostrils were carefully washed with warm water, to which had been added about 10 drops of eucalyptus oil. Each dog was kept free from draughts in uniform temperature, in a large cask plentifully bedded with clean straw. When I left for Newcastle show on Thursday afternoon two of the patients looked like going under the turf, but on my return home on Saturday night they were, very greatly to my surprise, very much alive, and are now as good as new. The diet, I should have said, consisted of well boiled rice and biscuits soaked with broth.

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[asal]

The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 14 December 1910

DISTEMPER.

There are few Sydney and suburban Kennels at the present time whose inmates are free from sickness of some sort. The chief cause of ailment is mange, influenza or the dreaded distemper. In my own kennels for the first time in thirty years I had an outbreak of distemper. There was no difficulty in diagnosing the malady for there were present the infallible symptoms of a hacking, husky cough, accompanied by copious discharge of matter from the nostrils. How I cured my fox terriers may prove of benefit to other persons whose dogs are affected by this dire disease. To a teaspoonful of butter I added a fair amount of common salt. This mixture was given early on Tuesday morning, and again the same night, followed each time an hour later by a dessert spoonful of salad oil. The effect of this treatment was to thoroughly cleanse the dog inside. Next day, Wednesday, each dog was given a pill, about the size of an ordinary marble, composed of flowers of sulphur and the best castor oil. Two or three times a day the nostrils were carefully washed with warm water, to which had been added about 10 drops of eucalyptus oil. Each dog was kept free from draughts in uniform temperature, in a large cask plentifully bedded with clean straw. When I left for Newcastle show on Thursday afternoon two of the patients looked like going under the turf, but on my return home on Saturday night they were, very greatly to my surprise, very much alive, and are now as good as new. The diet, I should have said, consisted of well boiled rice and biscuits soaked with broth.

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good grief!

I wonder if they really recovered completely?

i well remember one of my dads favourite dogs, he got it and was nursed through it and thought to have recovered and did seem fine for nearly a year. then it was noticed he would be playing or whatever and suddenly freeze.

imobile to the extent you could pick him up and he was fixed like a stuffed toy??

just as suddenly he was un frozen and continue as if nothing had happened.. it was weird

took him to the vet but he couldnt find anything wrong, that is until he went to take his tempretare and he again froze lke he had been doing.

he couldnt even move his jaws let alone legs.

he apparently had suffered brain damage. thats one dreadful disease. im so glad its virtualy extinct today

[Staranais]

Yeah, even if dogs appear to recover from distemper, they can have neuro diseases that only become apparent years later.

I'm glad we can vaccinate for it nowadays. It's such a nasty disease.

I don't think we'll ever truly eliminate it, though, since it's one of those diseases that is lurking in other species ready to re-infect our dogs if canine herd immunity falls too low. There was a huge outbreak in Finland in the mid 90s when a batch of vaccine failed, about 1500 dogs died.

[Boronia]

Good article Souff..I found this interesting also.....

'Mr Arthur Albert, of Erskineville, reports the sale of a little Yorkshire terrier dog by the lately deceased Sprightly, ex Kingshorn Dainty Dot to Mr W. E. Smalley, of Gvmpie.'

The Smalley family are still in Gympie...wonder if they still have Yorkies?

[Souff]

Good article Souff..I found this interesting also.....

'Mr Arthur Albert, of Erskineville, reports the sale of a little Yorkshire terrier dog by the lately deceased Sprightly, ex Kingshorn Dainty Dot to Mr W. E. Smalley, of Gvmpie.'

The Smalley family are still in Gympie...wonder if they still have Yorkies?

Send them a copy of the newspaper column for Christmas. They might get a little buzz out of seeing their ancestor's name there.

I just thought the column was an interesting snapshot of the time. We have come a long way in terms of vaccinating against horrible diseases like distemper ... but we don't have a regular column in a major city newspaper.

I liked the way "W.C.T." also fielded questions on dogs from the public. Sort of like an agony aunt but in an almost cryptic abbreviated form. Cool.

Souff could do that ... could politely tell some to buggar off in an abbreviated form so that they would barely realise they had just been told. Like, "Letter and enclosure to hand" .... gawd, it took me ages to get through the first 3 neverending pars of waffle, just how long did it take you to write all this .. AND you sent an enclosure to boot!!!!

Enough to put one "under the turf" .....

[BittyMooPeeb]

A sign of the time too that the writer, despite having distemper in his kennels, went to a show (where he and his dogs could have infected other dogs) AND left the sick dogs at home where 'to his suprise' the lived

[Souff]

Cant help but wonder what those dog owners and exhibitors would make of today's interference by governments in their hobby. I imagine a few choice phrases just might have been used in the chambers in Elizabeth Street should ever such a notion have been raised.

Souff

[lappiemum]

Yeah, even if dogs appear to recover from distemper, they can have neuro diseases that only become apparent years later.

I'm glad we can vaccinate for it nowadays. It's such a nasty disease.

I don't think we'll ever truly eliminate it, though, since it's one of those diseases that is lurking in other species ready to re-infect our dogs if canine herd immunity falls too low. There was a huge outbreak in Finland in the mid 90s when a batch of vaccine failed, about 1500 dogs died.

There was also a major outbreak in Finland post WW2 that saw the numbers of Lapphunds decimated. The breed almost died out -which would have been tragic given how long the breed (and its ancestors) have been around.

[Souff]

1 of 3 very good reasons for vaccinating our dogs.

Souff