CHAPTER III 

 The Principles of Breeding 



1 HE gravest danger which ever besets the future 

 of a popular breed is that of injudicious mating in the 

 hope of producing exceptional results. 



And injudicious mating, I am convinced, is far more 

 often due to ignorance of the first principles of an 

 extremely intricate science than to any wanton attempt 

 to breed a superlative show dog at the ultimate expense 

 of the race. For the man who would willingly sacrifice 

 health, intelligence, vigour, hardihood, and usefulness in 

 order to produce a paragon of fancy points is fortunately 

 rare. With him it is scarcely necessary to exchange 

 opinions. At the best I class him as a knave ; at the 

 worst he is welcome to consider me a fool. 



It is with the beginner, whose laudable desire is for 

 the improvement of the race, and whose personal 

 ambition is to breed the best possible specimen of it, 

 that I am here concerned. 



To enable him to do this with any chance of 

 success it is essential that he should thoroughly grasp 

 the first principles of the science of reproduction. 



