CHAPTER I 



THE ORIGIN OF THE DOG 



IN seeking the origin of the dog, we have to carry 

 our imaginations far down the centuries through the 

 mists of ages, and then we have little other than 

 conjecture to aid us. It is difficult to say when the 

 enduring partnership between dog and man was first 

 cemented to the mutual advantage of both. Still 

 more difficult is it to say what was the progenitor, 

 of the dog. Indeed, it is by no means certain whether 

 he comes from a single parent wild stock, or whether 

 several species had a part in his composition. At the 

 first blush it seems difficult to imagine that the many 

 varieties of dogs known to the world should have had 

 any common origin, so marked is the difference, say, 

 between the huge St. Bernard and the Toy Terrier, 

 weighing no more than three or four pounds. The 

 Kennel Club Register acknowledges no less than 

 thirty-eight varieties of sporting dogs, and an equal 

 number of non-sporting, as being sufficiently nume- 

 rous in this country alone to justify a separate 

 classification at shows. In many cases, however, 

 we find but a sub -division of varieties, such as the 

 rough and smooth Collie, the rough and smooth 

 St. Bernard, the black and black-and-white New- 



BooJe of the Dog. 2 * 



