47^ DOGS USED FOR SPORT. 



Nutritive changes are constantly taking place in the young 

 animal, and correspond in rapidity with the activity of other vital 

 phenomena. Up to the age of two years then, the demand is fully 

 equal, even in excess of the supply, nothing being in reserve, as the 

 osseous, muscular, circulatory and other systems are undergoing 

 a process of development, and are withal so interwoven with each 

 other, that nothing may be taken from one without detracting from 

 the whole, and consequently rendering that which is now incomplete 

 still more imperfect, taking away a balance which cannot be re- 

 stored. Hence, to breed a young animal while undergoing the 

 process of development is not only to withdraw a portion of the 

 vital force necessary to its existence, but induces a strain which 

 cannot be borne without detriment, and forces into action organs 

 which are as yet insufficiently matured for the proper performance 

 of the functions for which they are intended. Worst of all is the 

 strain upon the circulatory and nervous systems ; the mainspring 

 and compensation-balance, so to speak, of existence. 



The vital forces having been thus injured, weakened, it can 

 but be expected that the impress will be stamped upon the off- 

 spring ; and this is more particularly the case in physical and 

 mental attributes. The father's impress being psychological rather 

 than real, hence the age of the paternal parent cannot be expected 

 to make up for the lack of development possessed by the mother. 

 Then, to demand perfect offspring we must needs have perfect 

 parents, and this we do not have when the parents are yet adoles- 

 cent. Lack of mental attributes in parents entails a correspond- 

 ing lack in the offspring, and hence we find gun-shyness, timidity 

 and idiocy. Mating adolescent dogs is like marrying adolescent 

 children. 



With regard to the use of the male, we can but add that it is 

 likewise detrimental for reasons physiological. It would afford us 

 pleasure to go into the physiology and aetiology of the subject, but 



have no supervision in the matter of the exercise of their sexual appetites. While 

 this is true, it must be remembered that the education of the wild animal, and its 

 treatment in early life, has stamped it as an entirely different animal from the 

 more delicate and carefully nurtured dogs of which we are writing, and to a great 

 extent, an artificial production. Most wild animals mature earlier than domestic 

 ones, but reach adolescence later. There are few true canidce in the wild state, 

 that breed much before two years of age. 



