Upon taking the dog personally to the young lady in question, I told her his history as far as I knew it, and also that while I could give her the dealer’s guarantee of the dog I could not of course, endorse it, but that if she cared to run the risk she could have the dog on approval as long as she wished.  I said in warning that there was something about his eye that did not altogether strike my fancy, and that if he showed the least symptom of being anything but affectionate, to ship him to my kennels in Cliftondale immediately.  As he was a handsome dog, with beautiful color, I could see she wanted him at once, and the dog seemed to take to her in an even greater degree.  I received a letter from her in a week’s time, saying how perfectly satisfactory the dog was in every way, and what a general favorite he had become with the lady patients there, several of whom would like me to get one like him for them.  I need not say how pleased I was to hear this, but what was my surprise to receive a letter the next day asking me to send at once for the dog, as he had bitten the matron.  You may depend that neither she nor any other of the inmates there would ever want to see a Boston again, and who would want them to?  Of course I lost my money, but that is not worth mentioning.  The sorrow I felt stays by me today.  I sent for the dog and kept him at my kennels for five months, taking care of him myself and never letting him out of my sight, during which time he was as gentle as a kitten, until one day a young dog man came down into the yard, and the dog, for some unaccountable reason, as in the case of the matron, jumped on him and took hold of his sleeve.  The man, being accustomed to dogs, was fortunately not scared.  This explained the low price of the dog, and it is needless to add, he ornamented my kennels no longer.  I can only state in connection with this that that dealer has sold very few dogs since.  I never purchase a dog now, unless I know the man from whom I buy.

How to breed dogs possessing an ideal disposition is the all-important question, and I give the rules as followed in our kennels with complete success.  Breed only from stock that you know comes from an ancestry noted for this particular feature.  Many dogs are naturally of an affectionate nature, but have been made snappish by ill treatment, or teasing.  This can be bred out by judicious care, but where a vicious tendency is hereditary, look out for trouble ahead.  Damages for dog bites come high, and he must be either a very rich man, or a very poor one, that can afford to keep this kind of stock.

Use only thoroughly healthy stock; disease is often productive of an uneven, sullen disposition.  See that the bitch especially never shows a tendency to be cross or snappy.  The male dog usually controls the shape, color and markings, and the dam the constitution and disposition.  Hence it is, if anything, of more importance that the female should be strong in this feature than the male, although the male, of course, should be first class also.  So well known is this physiological fact that breeders of standard bred horses, particularly hunters and carriage horses, will never breed a vicious mare to a quiet stallion, and yet they are generally willing to risk breeding a quiet mare to a stallion not as good in this respect.