88 THE AMERICAN HUNTING DOG 



if you lose him, it will go ten times as hard with 

 you I 



Whether to keep bitch or dog also comes under 

 the same heading of individual temperament. A 

 bitch is more docile and affectionate ; as smart as 

 or smarter than the dog ; is infinitely more trouble 

 to keep because of her seasons, recurring every 

 six months and lasting for about three weeks ; and 

 she is more hardy than the dog, following Na- 

 ture's universal law of making the more important 

 sex of the species constitutionally sounder. The 

 dog, on the other hand, is much easier to keep, is 

 harder to teach, more quarrelsome with other 

 dogs, more liable to disease, and, unless a prize- 

 winner, is a source of no income to you as a pro- 

 ducer. 



In general, I should not advise keeping a bitch 

 for a man who has a family of growing children, 

 already a great deal of care to their mother; she 

 will be only one more thing to look after. But, 

 for a city sportsman who can afford to have his 

 bitch kept at the country club, and looked after 

 or bred properly when she comes in season, a bitch 

 would be a very good and profitable choice. She 

 will mind her strange master better afield, will 

 stand railway journeys and exposure better, and 

 will yield him a nice penny from the sale of her 



