CHAPTER IV. 



GENERAL HINTS ON BREEDING. 



Having become possessed of suitable kennels 

 to house his stock, the breeder is confronted with 

 the great question: How and where shall I ob- 

 tain my breeding stock? Much depends on a 

 right start and the getting of the proper kind 

 of dogs for the foundation. Our celebrated 

 Boston poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, when 

 asked when a child's education should begin, 

 promptly replied, "A hundred years before it was 

 born." This contains an inherent truth that all 

 breeders of choice stock of whatever description 

 it may be, recognize. To be well born is half 

 the battle, and I think this applies with particu- 

 lar force to the Boston terrier, for without a 

 good ancestry of well bred dogs, possessing the 

 best of dispositions, constitutions and conformity 

 to the standard, he is worse than useless. 



Whether the start is made with one bitch or 

 a dozen, I believe the best plan to follow is to 

 obtain of a reliable breeder, noted for the general 

 excellence of his dogs in all desirable character- 

 istics, what he considers the best stock obtain- 

 able for breeding purposes. This does not imply, 



