Buying a Dog 73 
was. I know, however, that if I owned her nothing would induce me to part 
with her until I had tried her as a brood bitch. If she does not prove a 
good one, then there is no value in a pedigree.” 
It must also be very distinctly borne in mind that while it is perfectly 
proper to buy a bitch with a pedigree which will bear such an investigation 
as the foregoing and be approved of by an expert, it is quite a different thing 
in a dog. No one with any knowledge of the subject will breed to a dog 
merely on pedigree, unless as an experiment in the case of one much inbred 
to a thoroughly tested strain. The vast majority of good dogs have 
been bred from sires individually good; so when it comes to the purchase 
of a dog he must be excellent as an individual, and that must take precedence 
over pedigree, for as we have already said, a good dog makes the pedigree 
good, and not the other way. 
Continuing with the same pedigree as the text, the fact that we find in 
it so many of one person’s breeding, and he a successful breeder, is a great 
indorsement of it. Such a person is all the time selecting which of his 
best to keep and getting rid of the unsuitable or what is no longer needed in 
his kennel. By this process the quality of the breeding stock of the kennel 
is gradually improved and becomes more reliable in producing. Type 
becomes more consistent, and in process of time we have a strain established 
which can be relied upon to produce good ones in greater proportion than is 
the case in most of the rival kennels. 
Let us suppose for a moment that we are considering, for instance, 
organising a car-line. No one in his senses would suggest that a start be 
made with a dinky mule-car and by a series of changes finally arrive at an 
up-to-date electric plant. Business is not conducted that way, but in view of 
the many improvements continually being introduced into the car service 
a most thorough investigation is made so as to avoid mistake in getting the 
result of the best thoughts and experiments on the subject. The line when 
it is opened is thereby furnished in the most up-to-date manner possible 
and starts on an equal footing with the improved service of the old reorgan- 
ised horse-cars and cable-cars. And that is just what the person intent upon 
entering the field as a competitive breeder must do if he desires success. 
Discard all idea of beginning at the bottom with puppy purchases and 
“champion pedigrees,” but look carefully over the results of the shows and 
note who are the men who have bred the winners. Having found that out 
do not make the mistake of purchasing puppies, for out of the many litters 
