70 
Beagles and Beagling 
tion. In this connection I might observe that there 
are many dogs which never can he trained. Some 
are natural fools, others have no brains and still 
others are inherently lazy and never will take to 
hunting. If the beginner has been so unfortunate 
as to secure one of these varieties as his first venture, 
the best plan is to make awav with him and charge 
it to profit and loss. If, however, he studies the 
various strains and blood lines, he is not so apt to 
go far wrong. Pedigree counts for much in all 
domestic animals, but pedigree alone does not make 
the dog. It is the combination of individuals in 
the ancestry that counts. A pedigree might have 
half a dozen bench and field champions in the tabu¬ 
lation and still the individual it represents can be 
worthless. Rather select a dog from a line of level¬ 
headed working dogs than a combination of cham¬ 
pions with a lot of worthless dogs in the back¬ 
ground. What I mean is this: Many a time an 
owner of an inferior bitch breeds to a champion 
and finds a ready sale for the puppies because of 
this champion, while on the other hand, breeders of 
real field dogs go on breeding from generation to 
generation of real working dogs and the result is 
that the progeny of such strains is practically always 
good. Select a dog with a pedigree, but try to 
find out something about the names that this long- 
sheet of paper contains. 
The age to buy a puppy depends upon the wishes 
of the purchaser. It is interesting to secure a puppy 
of ten or twelve weeks and watch him grow and 
develop, but the novice must take into consideration 
that so young a dog is more susceptible to the usual 
