466 British Dogs. 



too exhausting on the system of any dog. No bitch should be allowed 

 to breed oftener than once a year. 



Best Season for Breeding. Although pups are born at all seasons, they 

 are not always reared, and late autumn and winter ones are often rickety, 

 and from my own experience, and that of many friends, I believe they 

 rarely ever possess the amount of vitality of. spring and early summer 

 pups. 



The spring is Nature's great reproductive season ; winter the natural 

 time of rest from and preparation for the process. 



In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast, 

 In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest. 



And, in plain prose, in the spring only does the dog undomesticated 

 breed. Not only is it, therefore, the time most natural, but I believe, 

 as a rule, the strongest litters are then thrown, and there is the obvious 

 and very great advantage that the progeny have before them the genial 

 influences of summer in which to grow and prepare to do battle with the 

 numerous ills of puppyhood. 



Summary. If you aspire to be a breeder, in contradistinction to a 

 person who has dogs that breed, before forming an alliance between 

 two dogs, consider the whole subject as I have endeavoured to explain 

 it, with all other information bearing on it available to you ; and 

 having, as you must have to be a breeder, a clear and definite object 

 for your attainment, weigh the various influences at work and their pro- 

 bable effect in forwarding or retarding that object and act accordingly. 



AXIOMS FOR BREEDERS The following, bearing on the physiology of 

 breeding, may, at least by the inexperienced, be safely accepted as axioms 

 and acted upon until such time, should it ever arrive, that by extensive 

 experience and careful observation he finds one or more of them to be 

 wrong. They represent the result of experiment and observation by the 

 most capable, and, as accepted laws by our best breeders, should carry 

 weight with the tyro. 



" Like breeds Like ; " but this must be considered in conjunction with 

 other laws and influences at work. 



"Breeding Back," or the law of Atavism, often asserts itself unex- 

 pectedly and suggests the necessity of a careful inspection of pedigrees. 



" In-and-in Breeding " is useful as a means of establishing and con- 



