days to follow. What I am going to add now I know a great many
dealers and breeders will laugh at and declare me a fit subject for an
alienist to work on, but it is fundamentally true just the same, and is
this: Never ask or take for a dog more than you know (not guess) the dog
is worth. This is nothing but ordinary, common everyday justice that every
man has every right to demand of his fellow man, and every man that is a
gentleman will recognize the truth and force of.

I was reading a novel this summer, and one statement amongst a great many
good ones impressed me. It stated "that all men were divided into two
classes: those that behaved themselves, and those who did not." We all
know that society has divided men into many classes, but I think any
thoughtful man will confess, in the last analysis, that the novelist's
classification was the correct one. I need not apply the moral.

It will be somewhat of a temptation to resist taking what a party,
liberally supplied with this world's goods, will frequently in their
ignorance offer for a dog that appeals to them, but which the owner knows
perfectly well is not worth the price offered. If he belongs to the class
that behaves themselves he will tell the prospective buyer what the dog is
intrinsically worth, and point out the reasons why he is not worth more.
You may depend that you have not only obtained a customer for life, but
one that will readily advertise your kennels under all circumstances. I
shall have to ask the reader to overlook the apparent egotism of the
statements I am now about to make, but as this book is largely the
outgrowth of the author's own experience, of necessity personal matters
are spoken of.

A number of years ago I received an order from the Western coast, through
a Boston house, for a good all-round puppy at two hundred dollars. I sent
the puppy on, and much to the surprise of the customer, stated my price
for him would be one hundred instead of two. The pup matured into a very
nice dog, as I expected he would, being a Cracksman pup out of a good
bitch. What has been the result of this treatment? Ever since (and no
later than yesterday), orders for dogs from this gentleman have been
coming right along.

Another case, and this is only a sample of several from the same city: A
number of years back a New York lady, accompanied by her husband, came to
our kennels to purchase a dog. I had quite a handsome litter of five or
six months old pups