580 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



the bullring, that the Collie's ears are 

 erected to assist him in hearing sounds from 

 afar, as those of the Bloodhound are pen- 

 dant, the more readily to detect sounds 

 coming to him along the ground while his 

 head is bent to the trail. Dogs that hunt 

 by scent have long muzzles to give space 

 to their olfactory organs. Hounds that 

 hunt in packs carry their sterns gaily for 

 signalling to their companions. Rough, 

 oily hair is given to water dogs as a pro- 

 tection against wet, as the Collie's ample 

 coat protects him from snow and rain. 

 Nature has been discriminate in her adapta- 

 tions of animal forms, and the most perfect 

 dog yet bred is the one which approaches 

 nearest to Nature's wise intention. 



But when man's requirements have not 

 been wholly met by Nature's crude designs, 

 he has found it expedient to introduce his 

 artificial processes, and to adapt what he 

 has found to the purposes which he has 

 himself created. 



The foregoing chapters have given abun- 

 dant examples of how the various breeds 

 of the dog have been acquired, manufac- 

 tured, improved, resuscitated, and retained. 

 Broadly speaking, two methods have been 

 adopted : The method of introducing an 

 outcross to impart new blood, new strength, 

 new character; and the method of inbreed- 

 ing to retain an approved type. An out- 

 cross is introduced when the breed operated 

 upon is declining in stamina or is in danger 

 of extinction, as when the Irish Wolfhound 

 was crossed with the Great Dane and the 

 St. Bernard with the dog of the Pyrenees; 

 or when some new physical or mental 

 quality is desired, as when the Greyhound, 

 lacking in dash, was crossed with the Bull- 

 dog to give him greater pluck. When 

 this is done, and the alien blood has been 

 borrowed, it is usual to breed back again 

 to the original strain, which thus profits 

 without being materially marred by the 

 admixture. The plan may be exercised for 

 a variety of reasons, as, for example, if 

 you desired to introduce a race of pure 

 white Collies, you might attain your end by 

 crossing a chosen bitch with a snowy 

 Samoyede; or if you wished to put prick 

 ears on your Old English Sheepdog you 

 could do it by crossing one with a French 

 Ckicn de Brie. New types and eccentrici- 



ties are hardly wanted, however, and the 

 extreme requirements of an outcross may 

 nowadays be achieved by the simple pro- 

 cess of selecting individuals from differing 

 strains of the same breed, mating a bitch 

 which lacks the required points with a dog 

 in whose family they are prominently and 

 consistently present. 



Inbreeding is the reverse of outcrossing. 

 It is the practice of mating animals closely 

 related to each other, and it is, within 

 limits, an entirely justifiable means of pre- 

 serving and intensifying family character- 

 istics. It is a law in zoology that an animal 

 cannot transmit a quality which it does not 

 itself innately possess, or which none of its 

 progenitors have ever possessed. By 

 mating a dog and a bitch of the same 

 family, therefore, you concentrate and en- 

 hance the uniform inheritable qualities into 

 one line instead of two, and you reduce -the 

 number of possibly heterogeneous ancestors 

 by exactly a half right back to the very 

 beginning. There is no surer way of 

 maintaining uniformity of type, and an 

 examination of the extended pedigree of 

 almost any famous dog will show how com- 

 monly inbreeding is practised. In many 

 aristocratic breeds, indeed, it is not easy 

 to discover two dogs who are not descended 

 from an identical source, and breeders 

 anxious to secure litters of an invariable 

 type purposely contrive the mating of near 

 relatives. Inbreeding is certainly advan- 

 tageous when managed with judgment and 

 discreet selection, but it has its disadvan- 

 tages also, for it is to be remembered that 

 faults and blemishes are inherited as well 

 as merits, and that the faults have a way 

 of asserting themselves with annoying per- 

 sistency. Furthermore, breeding between 

 animals closely allied in parentage is prone 

 to lead to degeneracy, physical weakness, 

 and mental stupidity, while impotence and 

 sterility are frequent concomitants, and 

 none but experienced breeders should 

 attempt so hazardous an experiment. Ob- 

 servation has proved that the union of 

 father with daughter and mother with son 

 is preferable to an alliance between brother 

 and sister. Perhaps the best union is that 

 between cousins. For the preservation of 

 general type, however, it ought to be suffi- 

 cient to keep to one strain and to select 



