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preserve the balance as far as may be by breeding twice 

 out. All these matters carefully weighed and digested 

 by the beginner, we come back now to the foundation of 

 a successful kennel. The breeder should certainly not 

 part with any of his pups before the age of five months, 

 unless there are some obviously unfit by constitution or 

 too much white on the toes, or that they are absolutely- 

 smooth, with no promise of whiskers on the face. At 

 five or six months old the best policy to pursue is to keep 

 for himself the most promising dog and the most 

 promising bitch of his first litter, and by advertising the 

 others for sale he should easily recoup himself for the 

 initial outlay of the capital. When his young bitch is of 

 age (and my own experience is greatly in favour of 

 mating bitches the first season) he will have noted where 

 she fails in her different qualities, and in selecting a stud 

 dog for her he should select a dog resembling her as 

 near as possible in contour, and if he possesses in ?, 

 superlative degree those excellences wherein she is 

 deficient, so much the more successful will the result of 

 the alliance be. Mayhap all this sounds formidable to 

 the beginner, but the enthusiast who is not easily 

 daunted, and possesses a sufficient fund of common- 

 sense and determination, combined with a genuine love of 

 the breed, is bound to get " right there." The apprentice- 

 ship is not over-long, but sufficiently arduous, and the 

 beginner will look back upon his failures with little 

 searchings of heart perhaps, but when he has acquired 

 that experience which alone can correct those failures, 

 he may look back and find many pleasant landmarks 

 which have brought him to the successful issue of breed- 

 ing a champion, and then, maybe, when the five-guinea 

 stud fees come tumbling in, and two Continents are 

 making large demands upon his carefully-bred puppy 

 stock, he will find that the reward is commensurate with 

 his labours, and he will thus have the laugh of the slap- 



