CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL HINTS ON BREEDING.

Having become possessed of suitable kennels to house his stock, the breeder is confronted with the great question:  How and where shall I obtain my breeding stock?  Much depends on a right start and the getting of the proper kind of dogs for the foundation.  Our celebrated Boston poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, when asked when a child’s education should begin, promptly replied, “A hundred years before it was born.”  This contains an inherent truth that all breeders of choice stock of whatever description it may be, recognize.  To be well born is half the battle, and I think this applies with particular force to the Boston terrier, for without a good ancestry of well bred dogs, possessing the best of dispositions, constitutions and conformity to the standard, he is worse than useless.

Whether the start is made with one bitch or a dozen, I believe the best plan to follow is to obtain of a reliable breeder, noted for the general excellence of his dogs in all desirable characteristics, what he considers the best stock obtainable for breeding purposes.  This does not imply, of course, that these bitches will be candidates for bench honors, but it does mean that if mated with suitable sires the production of good, all-round puppies with a reasonable amount of luck will be the result.  It would be useless to attempt to deal with the subject of breeding in more than a few of its aspects, for after a period of twenty-five years of expended and scientific experiments in the breeding exclusively of Bostons, I shall have to confess that there are many problems still unsolved.  The rules and regulations that govern the production of many other breeds of dogs seem impotent here, the assumption that “like produces like” does not seem to hold good frequently in this breed, but perhaps the elements of uncertainty give an unspeakable charm to the efforts put forth for the production of the dogs which will be a credit to the owner’s kennel.  The old adage that “there is nothing duller than a puzzle of which the answer is known,” can readily be applied here.  I shall endeavor to confine my remarks to the laws observed and the lines followed for the production of dogs in our kennels, especially in the attainment of correct color and markings, vigorous constitutions and desirable dispositions.

In speaking of the breeding stock I am aware that I am going contrary to the opinion of many breeders when I state that I believe that the dam should possess equal or more quality than the sire, that her influence and characteristics are perpetuated in her posterity to a greater degree than are those of the sire’s, especially that feature of paramount importance, a beautiful disposition, hence I speak of the maternal side of the house first.  There are two inexorable laws that confront the breeder at the onset, more rigid than were those of the Medes and Persians, the