Dogs in the Canon of Sherlock Holmes (with a short mention of cats) by Michael Waxenberg

The domesticated dog comes in many different sizes, colors, and breed names, but actually are all considered to be one species of animal, scientific name Canis lupus familiaris. Rather bizarre, since the one species has a dramatic variety from Chihuahua to St. Bernard, Greyhound to Golden Retriever, yet all dogs are genetically so similar they can interbreed, and are all one species. In the Canon of Sherlock Holmes, there are several different dogs mentioned, and this essay attempts to look at all the dogs in the Canon, describe them, and briefly indicate something significant about them. Please let me know if I missed any so I can update this report. (Note 1).

By my count, at least thirteen (13) different dogs are mentioned in the Canon. Of these, we are given the names of only five (5) of them. For some, we are given descriptions or breeds. Most of the dogs are significant for one reason or another in the cases wherein they are mentioned. 

Here are the dogs:

Dog	Breed or Description	Action or Significance	Case
Roy	Wolfhound	SH discusses possibly writing a monograph on dogs in detective work.	CREE
Unnamed	An Airedale Terrier	Fitzroy McPherson’s little dog, tossed through a plate glass window. Also McPherson’s dog. Found dead on the beach near the Cyanea capillata. Said to have died of grief, but was a victim of the Cyanea. And was it the same dog as the prior one?	LION
The Shoscombe Spaniels	Spaniel	SH quote: “Dogs don’t make mistakes.”	SHOS
Unnamed		Terrier, terminally ill, poisoned in experiment. Reminiscent of sheep experiment in SILV.	STUD
Toby	Half spaniel, half lurcher	Good sniffer , tracked the suspects.	SIGN
The stable dog		Did nothing in the night.	SILV
A beast of a dog		Guarded the house.	MILV
Pompey	Mix beagle and foxhound	Tracked the missing man.	MISS
Unnamed		Dog drenched in petroleum and set on fire.	ABBE
Unnamed	Curly haired spaniel	Owned by Dr. James Mortimer And killed by The Hound.	HOUN
Hound of the Baskervilles		Shot and killed by Holmes.	HOUN
Carlo	Spaniel	Paralyzed by young boy’s poison.	SUSS
Carlo	Mastiff	Shot and killed by Watson.	COPP

ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

The list above has 14 dogs, or 13 if the two dogs in LION are one and the same dog, although it is not likely that any dog would survive being tossed through a plate glass window. Rather than argue, we can take 13 as the total number of dogs. Of the 13 dogs listed, 7 are maimed or killed. Manners of death are not always quick or kind, such as poisoning and being set on fire. Holmes shoots one dead (the famous Hound), and Dr. Watson shoots one dead (Carlo from "Copper Beaches"). Those killings were arguably cases of self-defense, and not animal cruelty, although the owners of those two dogs treated them cruelly, which is why they were dangerous to Holmes and Watson.

Dogs are helpers in solving some cases. The best example is the dog who did nothing in the night, from "Silver Blaze," whose inaction was an important clue to the identity of the culprit. Holmes uses two dogs for tracking people, one in London and one in the country. In "Lion’s Mane," McPherson’s dead dog, the Airedale Terrier, offers a clue to the murderer of his master.

The brutality and cruelty to dogs in these stories is hard to take. In England, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed in a London coffee shop in 1824. Perhaps if it had been formed in a pub it would have been more effective. It received royal patronage from Queen Victoria in 1840, allowing it to be called the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but even Queen Victoria’s support was not enough to prevent cruelty, judging by the level of mayhem to dogs listed above. Lest you think the British were insensitive to the suffering of dogs and other animals, consider that the U.K. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed in 1889, which was 65 years after the formation of the society to prevent cruelty to animals. Parliament passed a law making it a criminal offence to be cruel to animals in 1835, and then passed a law against cruelty to children in 1889, some 54 years later. Maybe the British were insensitive to cruelty to animals, but at least we can be consoled by the fact that they were even more insensitive to cruelty to children.

If I had to be reincarnated as a character from the Canon, I would not choose to be one of the dogs. The risk of mayhem and death is too high. You may think it better to be a Canonical cat, the domesticated Felis catus. But no domestic cats are characters in any of the 60 original cases. The only mention of a cat is a brief anecdote about the loathsome Jonas Oldacre in "Norwood Builder," who was rumored to have once turned a cat loose in an aviary. (Note 2). In that example, the action of Oldacre shows cruelty to animals, specifically to the birds in the aviary, not cruelty to the cat. We do not have enough data to determine if Holmes or Watson were cat fanciers, but it seems unlikely, since cats do not get mentioned as appearing anywhere, despite the existence of millions of them in London and throughout Britain. We may speculate that Holmes and Watson were not cat fanciers. Which leads us to note the creative brilliance of T.S. Elliot, who wrote the poem “Macavity: The Mystery Cat,” a feline substitute for the evil Professor Moriarty, in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). Elliot was a Sherlockian of note, an admirer of the Canon, and an admirer of cats, apparently unlike the Master Detective and the good Doctor.

NOTES:

Note 1: If anyone knows of any dogs, or cats, not mentioned in this paper, please comment on this blog, or let me know some other way. I did not include dog-carts, because they are cruel to dogs. Attempts at humor are always welcome, but you do not need to mention the dog in Bruce-Partington Plans, who was killed and fell of the roof of a subway car, namely Arthur CaDOGen West. He died. That is not funny.

Note 2: Mentioning the loathsome Jonas Oldacre from "Norwood Builder" reminds me that I need to express my thanks to Randy Getz for his assistance in 2017 in assembling the first draft of the chart of dogs in the Canon. He and I prepared the chart in connection with a night at the local horse track for a Silver Blaze (Wessex Cup) race, which was also a fundraiser for a charity that rescues dogs and trains them to become service dogs. We had a genuine Dog and Pony Show.