The wire-hair has had a great advertisement, for better or worse, in the extraordinarily prominent way he has been mentioned in connection with “faking” and trimming.  Columns have been written on this subject, speeches of inordinate length have been delivered, motions and resolutions have been carried, rules have been promulgated, etc., etc., and 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 whatever is occasioned to the dog, who does not in reality object at all.  If, however, new or fast coat is pulled out it not only hurts the dog but it is also a very foolish thing to do, and the person guilty of such a thing fully merits disqualification.