The breeding of pedigree stock of any description, whether it be guinea-pigs or racehorses, casts an irresistible spell over the minds of men, who are continually straining after an unattainable ideal. While some devote their attention to means of reaching the North Pole, others range the forests of South America and brave untold hardships in the hope of discovering a rare orchid, but thousands of us are doomed to spend our days at home in humble obscurity. We must have hobbies and pursuits to afford us relaxation if we are busy people, or occupation if we are ranked among the idle, so we turn our spare energies towards improving some variety of domestic animal or bird. I say "improving," although the chances are that we are endeavouring to produce some point that has neither beauty nor utility to commend it. The lobes of a bantam may cause its owner sleepless nights, and the colour of a toy dog may entail endless worry upon its fair owner. It is a curious world, my masters, and the philosopher who has none of our little weaknesses may well look on in mild toleration of the foibles of mankind. Probably the chief allurement in breeding pedigree stock is the glorious uncertainty of the game. You see men start upon it, well equipped with scientific knowledge and preconceived notions as to how the thing should be done, and behold, all their little plans are set at naught, while the plain man, with his rule-of-thumb methods and no stock-in-trade other than common sense (the rarest of all senses, as some one has well said), steps in and reaches the top of the tree without apparent effort.

The man who determines to try his luck at breeding dogs will do well to make up his mind at once to learn all he can from those who have graduated in the school of experience. While many people are absurdly jealous about giving anything away, there are plenty of others who are only too pleased to guide the unwary from the pitfalls that abound. Read up all you can about the breed that you favour. Talk with other breeders with the object of impressing upon your mind the characteristics of the different strains and the main points and peculiarities of individual dogs. Remember that although good results may at times follow bad reasoning, you cannot always expect to have the luck of the little French milliner who bought the winning number in a lottery. Asked afterwards if the fickle goddess had favoured her, "Mais non," she replied, "I dreamt three nights in succession of the number seven, and I said to myself, three sevens are twenty-three, and I bought that number."

The axiom that like begets like has led many astray, and needs certain qualifications. It is quite true that if you mate a fox terrier with a fox terrier the resulting progeny will also be fox terriers, but it must not by any means be assumed that the produce of the best dog and the best bitch of their kind will be as good from a show point of view as their parents. This is such a commonplace to all who have kept a kennel of dogs that I write it with diffidence, but as I am endeavouring to be helpful to beginners I trust that the older hand who does me the honour of reading these remarks will be kindly tolerant. Remember, then, that you have to take into consideration that most potent law known to biologists as the law of heredity. Put in plain language, if success is to reward your efforts you require to know the characteristics that are at the back of the dog and bitch you are using, what their parents and grandparents were like, and further back still, if it is possible. Certain head qualities, for instance, may exist to an unusual extent in the parent stock that you are using, but if these individuals come from a weak-headed strain, the chances are that your puppies will be weak in this respect. As it is to be hoped that many who read this little work will breed sporting dogs, it is well to bear in mind that other qualities than the purely physical are also subject to this great law. The faculty of scent will be more highly developed in some strains than others, while stubbornness and lack of amenity to discipline have an unpleasant way of reappearing in future generations. If you are of an observant mind you will soon pick up the salient features of the leading families of the variety you are breeding, but one is forced reluctantly to the conclusion that there are breeders who can never learn. Time after time we see certain people turning out puppies by the hundred with a lamentably small percentage of dogs of the right type, while another man, with not more than two or three brood bitches, manages to bring out something above the average each year with the regularity of clock-work. When you have once grasped this idea you will probably arrive at the conclusion that successful dog-breeding is not merely a matter of chance, for surely luck would be on the side of the big battalions.

After you have devoted much time to a study of the best representatives of any particular breed, you will have impressed upon you the fact that leading families exist within that breed. In other words, men who have been at the game for years will stamp an individuality upon their stock that is quite unmistakable, and it will soon occur to you that inter-breeding between dogs from different kennels must be carried out with a considerable amount of caution if you do not wish to meet with disappointment. Experience alone can tell you how far you may safely go in amalgamating the best qualities of each. A useful tip for the novice is to decide upon the strain that most fills his eye, and then, by a diligent study of pedigrees, to follow as nearly as possible upon the lines of the master. He cannot go far wrong under such circumstances, and at any rate he will be building up an invaluable foundation stock, even if he is not fortunate enough to bring out any champions. It is a truism that to preserve type at its best a certain amount of inbreeding must be resorted to, but this is a practice calling for moderation if you do not wish to lose all your young dogs with distemper. Here you must invoke common sense to your aid in order to tell you when it is desirable to desert the strain you are following and bring in fresh blood from another kennel. If the variety of your choice is fairly numerous you will not experience much difficulty, but in some breeds you will find that inbreeding has been carried on to such an extent as to demand drastic measures in the shape of a rank out-cross, but this is the sort of thing not to be rushed into until you have learned the A B C of the business. The introduction of alien blood is not such a terrible business as it sounds, for if you resort to mathematics you will at once see what a small proportion of the foreign influence can be present in the third or fourth generation, yet the good effects upon the physique of the strain remain. By preference, for an out-cross I should select a breed as nearly resembling in conformation, colour, and texture of coat as possible my own particular breed, and I should also let the alien be a bitch, for the simple reason that I believe the influence of the sire to be greater than that of the dam. The late Mr. James Howard of Bedford was not only a horse-breeder of the first rank, but also a very observant man, and the conclusions he arrived at, and which were quoted approvingly by the late Sir Everett Millais, were that.