PRACTICAL DOG BREEDING 



A First Attempt To Apply the Modern Principles of Genetics to the Needs of Dog 



Fanciers. 



Review of a Book by Williams Haynes 



IT HAS long and deservedly been a 

 matter of reproach to the science of 

 genetics, that it has not succeeded 

 in getting in sufficiently close touch 

 with the practical, producing breeders 

 of the country. Genetics is ol^viously 

 one of the subjects, a knowledge of 

 which would be of direct profit to almost 

 everyone; yet the average man, even 

 the average breeder, knows little of 

 modem discoveries in heredity. The 

 organizers of the American Genetic 

 Association twelve years ago saw the 

 need and attempted to meet it, believ- 

 ing that if there were some central 

 body to collect and disseminate genetic 

 information, plenty of individuals would 

 be found to put it into further circula- 

 tion. So far, this belief has hardly 

 been justified, and the genetist must 

 therefore welcome with particular 

 warmth such a handbook^ as the one 

 which Williams Haynes, of New York, 

 a breeder and judge of long ex])erience, 

 has prey)ared for fellow fanciers of the 

 dog. The principal dissatisfaction likely 

 to arise in the mind of a reader of it is 

 that such handbooks are not available 

 to devotees of every other kind of 

 livestock. 



DOG BREEDING NOT DIFFICULT. 



Mr. Haynes has been remarkably 

 successful in giving clear and simple 

 expression to the ideas of genetics — 

 translating them, as he says, into "dog 

 talk" and usually illustrating his points 

 with examjiles drawn from the kennel. 

 While the book is thus sjjecialized, as 

 it should be, it yet deals with the 

 fundamental princii)les of breeding so 

 soundly that breeders of any kind of 

 live stock would derive enjoyment and 

 profit from reading it. 



1 Practical Dog Breeding, hy Williams Haynes. Outing Handbooks, No. 30. Small 8vo, 

 pp. 211, price 70 cents. Outing Publishing Colnijuny, 141 \V. 36th Street, New York, 1915. 

 264 



As is pointed out in the preface, dog 

 breeders, like breeders of other kinds 

 of pet stock, have lagged behind the 

 breeders of stock for profit, and it is 

 still not rare to find a dog breeder of 

 note who will acknowledge that his 

 system consists of "putting two good 

 ones together and trusting to luck." 

 Yet, "compared with other breeders, 

 the dog fancier has an easy task. In 

 the first place, he has less for which 

 to breed. Secondly, dog histories and 

 dog pedigrees have been for generations 

 carefully recorded. Lastly, dogs have 

 been bred toward approximately the 

 same ideal for a consicierable length of 

 time." In spite of this, it is well known 

 that dog breeding in the United States 

 is in an unsatisfactory condition, and 

 that fanciers are continually resorting 

 to the importation of dogs from England 

 or the continent. This condition could 

 easily be remedied, Mr. Haynes thinks, 

 if fanciers would study their breeds 

 carefully and familiarize themselves with 

 the value of the pedigree; and to 

 emphasize the desirability of the latter 

 end his handbook is largely devoted. 



A chapter briefly recounting the facts 

 of reproduction, from a biological view- 

 point, is followed by one on variation, 

 "the iDackbone of breeding." That 

 with which the dog fancier is concerned 

 is largely of a discontinuous nature, 

 although it seems probable that some 

 of the fancy points of highly artificial 

 breeds appeared as discontinuous varia- 

 tions, or mutations. The screw tail of 

 the English Bulldog is a case in point; 

 it not only breeds true, but has been 

 ])r{'d into the Boston Terrier and French 

 ikilldog. The alleged jjroduetion of 

 variation through lelegony and maternal 

 imj^ression is mentioned with proper 



