DSD

“Print num­ber 6517 and 6518 are smeared and does not define clarity.”

Another excel­lent find among my grandmother’s old doc­u­ments was a set of hilar­i­ously infor­ma­tive instruc­tions for nose-printing your dog.

When my father was young, his fam­ily owned an enor­mous Great Dane named Lady who turns out to have had a pedi­gree. Cana­dian National Live Stock Records show her mother’s name as “Duchess of Wil­low­dale” and her father’s as “Dandy of Mether­ing­ham.” To reg­is­ter Lady her­self with the Cana­dian Ken­nel Club, my grand­fa­ther had to send in a nose-print. I have no idea what the pri­mary method for tak­ing nose prints was, but it appar­ently failed, accord­ing to this let­ter from the Dept. of Agriculture:

                       February 6th, 1951.

Mr. W.K.G. Duffin,
R.R. 4,
Thorndale, Ont.

Dear Sir:

      We return two applications for your Great
Danes and the nose prints you provided. Print
number 6525 is incomplete as not enough of the
dogs nose was shown. Print number 6517 and 6518
are smeared and does not define clarity.

                 Yours truly,
                 CANADIAN NATIONAL LIVE STOCK RECORDS
                 R.G.T. HITCHMAN
                 DIRECTOR

Enclosed along with the note and the “incom­plete” and “smeared” nose prints were the fol­low­ing help­ful instructions…

Alter­na­tive Method of Tak­ing Nose-Prints

For the infor­ma­tion of those using this method of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, we would report that the fol­low­ing method of pro­ce­dure, in tak­ing prints, has proven satisfactory:

1. A small amount of tube ink (see below) is placed on the smooth sur­face of a piece of wood, glass, or other smooth sur­faced mate­r­ial and is spread evenly on such surface.
2. Exces­sive mois­ture is removed from the dog’s nose by cloth or other absorbent material.
3. Using tip of index fin­ger, a small amount of ink is spread as evenly as pos­si­ble across area of nose to be nose-printed. The amount of ink to be used and the extent to which the ink is spread by fin­ger­tip can best be deter­mined by experiment.
4. Take an offi­cial nose-print form (or plain paper when exper­i­ment­ing) and grasp it firmly, at cen­tre of its outer edges, by the fin­ger­tips of each hand, hold­ing the form in a ver­ti­cal position.
5. Per­son tak­ing print (while dog’s head is firmly held by another per­son) takes posi­tion directly in front of dog, fac­ing its nose and hold­ing the form (still in ver­ti­cal posi­tion) so that gummed side is toward holder of form.
6. Move form for­ward till con­tact is made, at cen­tre of form, with nose, then carry outer edges of form slightly more for­ward so as to allow for cur­va­ture of dog’s nose.
7. As soon as print is taken, remove form by quick back­ward move­ment of hands.
8. Set print to one side until ink is thor­oughly dry.

As a sug­ges­tion to those nose-printing such breeds as Box­ers, Bull­dogs, Pekes, etc., make fold in the form about one-third from bot­tom of form, and in tak­ing print see that fold is directly oppo­site the low­est sec­tion of the nose to be printed. Straighten out form after print is taken.

Care should be exer­cised, when fold­ing the form, to see that gummed edge folded back does not adhere to gummed sec­tion unto which it is folded.

Other Nose Print Ink Available

It has been found that excel­lent prints can be obtained by fol­low­ing the method out­lined above, and using the same type of ink that was used, for nose-printing pur­poses, some years ago. In order to accom­mo­date those who would wish to use such ink, arrange­ments have been made so that a two-ounce tube of this ink may be obtained from the Cana­dian Ken­nel Club, 667 Young Street, Toronto, Ont., on pay­ment of 75¢. Offi­cial nose-print forms (30 for 25¢) can be obtained by for­ward­ing order, with cov­er­ing pay­ment, to the Cana­dian Ken­nel Club. No C.O.D. orders, please.

Suc­cess

Pre­sum­ably, thanks to these instruc­tions, print num­ber 6537 was more satisfactory.

Lady’s nose-print (via the “alter­na­tive method”)

Per­son­ally, I think it’s quite attrac­tive. Broad strokes sweep diag­o­nally towards the nos­trils, where they frag­ment into lit­tle splotches and dots. Flecks of muz­zle hair speckle the region below. Def­i­nitely Lady. I can see it now — my grand­fa­ther press­ing Lady’s moist and inky nose to the offi­cial nose-print form. It sticks in the mid­dle, but the out­sides smear as she twists her head away, pre­fer­ring to paint other things like fur­ni­ture and squirrels.

Lady the Great Dane, with my father and aunt, sum­mer 1953