A Comparison of the American Bred Dogs 45 
the added disadvantage of a shy strain in their heri¬ 
tage, consequently this bad fault will be deeply 
stamped upon the progeny. We must not lose sight 
of the fact that the Shepherd’s greatest commenda¬ 
tion is his usefulness, and therefore a shy dog must 
necessarily be out of the question so far as useful¬ 
ness is concerned and should be severely penalized. 
If a bitch that is shy has such great qualities that 
she is considered at all for breeding, then a sire 
should be chosen that is her perfect antithesis in this 
respect and that is descended from a long line of 
bold dogs. It is well known among the breeders that 
certain strains have an inherent shyness that may 
develop violently in certain breedings and of latter 
years they are studiously avoiding these sires. We 
should follow their precepts in America. The Ger¬ 
man system of the Koerbuch is very valuable in this 
respect and the great faults will be eventually en¬ 
tirely eliminated, but alas, through our loose sys¬ 
tem of breeding here, they have an opportunity to 
return in all their viciousness. 
The great difficulty in the head properties of our 
Shepherds is the very apparent weakness of fore¬ 
face. Perhaps we had better call it a lack of bal¬ 
ance, for when we do develop good forefaces they 
are on very strong-headed dogs, with plenty of skull. 
What we must strive for are skulls that merge into 
forefaces of power. There could be an improvement 
also in the ears of the American-breds. We seem 
to get them too broad at the base and running into 
