BREEDING 21 



young stock ; it is better to rear well two or three 

 litters each year than to have half a dozen com- 

 posed of sickly, weedy whelps which are only fit 

 to put in a bucket. One's reward may come in a 

 few years, when a strain has been established that is 

 stamped with more or less individuality and is calcu- 

 lated to benefit the particular breed we favour. 

 Unless you have plenty of capital and sufficient 

 knowledge to judge wisely, it is not altogether advis- 

 able to buy a stud dog at the outset, as you might 

 only be spending your money on a costly mistake. 

 Possibly as you gain an accretion of experience you 

 may find a young dog that fills your eye structur- 

 ally, and whose pedigree is well suited to your 

 needs. He may possibly turn out a very profitable 

 speculation, for if his points are good, and his family 

 tree will bear investigation, you may fairly assume 

 that he will be used at a reasonable fee. Stud fees 

 vary from one to fifteen guineas ; I have even heard 

 of twenty -five guineas being charged for a small 

 Pekingese. More often than not the cheapest are 

 to be avoided. As a general rule it is not profit- 

 able to breed from animals that are at all advanced 

 in years, although on occasion it may be necessary 

 for the preservation of a particular strain to use a 

 dog eight or nine years of age. 



One may usually breed with confidence from a 

 bitch that has reached her sixteenth month, but after 

 the fifth year her progeny will be fewer in number 

 and smaller in size. Another point to bear in mind 

 is that winter puppies are rarely satisfactory unless 

 they happen to be of the small toy varieties that 

 suffer little from confinement. Considerable warmth 

 is needed, and if the weather is bad when the young- 



