52 THE AIREDALE 



strong in this point; while a very good coated 

 matron might be mated to a poor coated dog pro- 

 vided he possessed marked excellencies in other 

 directions. 



Unfortunately, but very scant attention was 

 paid to the dams. This was largely from eco- 

 nomical considerations, which led them to believ- 

 ing, or thinking they did merely because they 

 wanted to, that " any old bitch with a pedigree 

 was good enough to breed from." To bolster up 

 their economy, they said that the pups inherited 

 their looks from their sire and their dispositions 

 from their dam. 



Two changes have taken place in the past 

 decade. Breeders now know that physically as 

 well as mentally the dam is quite as important 

 as the sire. Moreover, they have learned that 

 individual characteristics, however marked they 

 may appear to be, do not have the force of fam- 

 ily traits. In other words, a short, thick headed 

 bitch bred to the longest headed dog alive would 

 have short headed pups, if that dog had short 

 headed parents and grandparents. These two 

 fundamental bits of knowledge, learned originally 

 from the biologists, have had a big effect on 

 breeding operations. 



A logical outgrowth of the importance that has 

 been placed on family, with the naturally les- 



