to the
animals themselves, but also in a far greater measure to the good general
qualities possessed by their ancestry. Far more pregnant with good results
would be the mating of two good all-round specimens, lacking to a
considerable extent show points, but the products of two families known
for their general excellence for several generations, than the offspring
would be of two noted prize winners of uncertain ancestry, neither of
which possessed the inherent quality of being able to reproduce
themselves. It will be noted that very few first prize winners had prize
winning sires and dams. The noted stud dogs of the past, "Buster,"
"Sullivan's Punch," "Cracksman," "Hickey's Teddy IV." and many others were
not in themselves noted winners, and the same statement may be made of the
dams of many of the prize winning dogs, but they possessed in themselves
and their ancestry that "hall mark" of quality which appeared in a
pronounced form in their offspring. Experience has shown that first class
qualities must exist for several generations in order to render their
perpetuation highly probable. The converse of this is equally true, that
any bad qualities bred for the same length of time are quite as hard to
eliminate. If the dog or bitch possesses weak points, be sure to breed to
dogs coming from families that are noted for their corresponding strong
points. In this case the principle of "give and take" will be adopted. It
used to be the ambition of every breeder (or, at least, most of them), to
produce a winner, rather than the production of a line of dogs of good
uniform type, of good average salable quality, but most have lived long
enough to see that this has not paid as well in money or expected results
as where similar endeavors have been directed towards the production of
good all-round dogs, always striving to advance their dogs to a higher
grade of excellence. In this way in nearly every instance prize winning
dogs have been produced, and there is this peculiarity noticeable in this
breed, that any one, whether he be a breeder of the greatest number, or a
very poor man owning only one or two in his kitchen kennel, possesses an
equal chance of producing the winner of the blue. The breeder of today has
a far easier time than in the early days of the dog when type was not as
pronounced or fixed, and when considerable inbreeding of necessity had to
be resorted to. In almost all parts of the country stud dogs of first
class