Selection and Breeding 
99 
been handed down through generations of ancestors 
that have done the same. 
It is practically the same with the hound family. 
This type of dog, from his earliest days, has been 
taught to recognize and trail certain scents and by 
continuous breeding to develop this particular trait, 
all of our different varieties of hounds are descended. 
The foxhound for generations was taught to recog¬ 
nize only the scent of the fox and thus to this day, 
dogs descended from real working strains take to 
the work naturally. The coonhound, although an 
offshoot from what were known as American 
hounds originally, was taught to hunt and tree the 
‘Varmints’’ of the woods and most of them take to 
it with little training. The beagle, which is a minia¬ 
ture hound, was taught to follow the rabbit or hare 
exclusively, and having specialized in this particular 
work for generations, he is today a natural rabbit 
hunter. Reasoning along these lines, it is easy to 
understand why the beagles descended from the 
strains of working stock in unbroken lines are more 
likely to reproduce themselves than such strains 
which for generations have lived in a kennel and 
have only the experience of the show ring behind 
them. Such strains, although originally descended 
from stock which was used in the field regularly, 
are not as likely to transmit practical qualities for 
the very reason that such characters have become 
latent from disuse and therefore progeny descended 
from them do not respond so readily. 
The breeder, therefore, is urged to select his stock 
according to the uses he wishes to make of it. If he 
is breeding solely for bench show specimens, then 
