ay. And if as many as 500 undesirables are destroyed every
week at one such institution, 'tis clear that the ill-bred mongrel
must soon altogether disappear. But the chief factor in the general
improvement of our canine population is due to the steadily growing
care and pride which are bestowed upon the dog, and to the scientific
skill with which he is being bred.

Admitting that the dogs seen at our best contemporary shows are
superlative examples of scientific selection, one has yet to
acknowledge that the process of breeding for show points has its
disadvantages, and that, in the sporting and pastoral varieties more
especially, utility is apt to be sacrificed to ornament and type, and
stamina to fancy qualities not always relative to the animal's
capacities as a worker. The standards of perfection and scales of
points laid down by the specialist clubs are usually admirable guides
to the uninitiated, but they are often unreasonably arbitrary in their
insistence upon certain details of form--generally in the neighbourhood
of the head--while they leave the qualities of type and character to
look after themselves or to be totally ignored.

It is necessary to assure the beginner in breeding that points are
essentially of far less moment than type and a good constitution. The
one thing necessary in the cultivation of the dog is to bear in mind
the purpose for which he is supposed to be employed, and to aim at
adapting or conserving his physique to the best fulfilment of that
purpose, remembering that the Greyhound has tucked-up loins to give
elasticity and bend to the body in running, that a Terrier is kept
small to enable him the better to enter an earth, that a Bulldog is
massive and undershot for encounters in the bullring, that the
Collie's ears are erected to assist him in hearing sounds from afar,
as those of the Bloodhound are pendant, the more readily to detect
sounds coming to him along the ground while his head is bent to the
trail. Nature has been discriminate in her adaptations of animal
forms; and the most perfect dog yet bred is the one which approaches
nearest to Nature's wise intention.

The foregoing chapters have given abundant examples of how the various
breeds of the dog have been acquired, manufactured, improved,
resuscitated, and retained. Broadly speaking, two methods have been
adopted: The method of introducing an outcross to impart new blood,
new strength, new character; and the method of inbree