Stonehenge, Shaw, and others have at various times written exhaustive treatises on the dog, its care in health and sickness; and while there is no question but that they are invaluable to the owners of large kennels, I consider that they are too complex for the novice who owns but one or two dogs. They use very largely technical terms not thoroughly understood by the layman, while certain treatments prescribed are quite impracticable except where one has a kennel-man. Besides, I think not one of the above-named writers has ever told the novice what to avoid in selecting a puppy or a grown dog, or what good points to insist upon. Recognizing all these facts, and recalling how I strove twenty years ago to find some work that would aid me in my search for knowledge of the dog, I have concluded to write a short treatise concerning its origin, uses, and all things pertaining to it, that will aid the reader in learning its good points, and bad ones too, the proper scale of “points” that go to make up the perfect specimen, the treatment in health and sickness, and such other data as may be of value to him. Experience as a successful breeder and owner, and having won many prizes largely through “condition,” confirms me in the belief that I may perhaps be able to help a fancier in purchasing the proper kind of dog, or, if he already has one, to aid him in keeping it in health, to know its value, and how to properly show it (if he is so inclined), so that its faults may be hidden to the greatest degree, while its good points may become more pronounced.
Perfection does not exist in either man or beast, so we will strive to select that specimen which has the fewest and least noticeable faults, remembering always that in the large breeds there are ten good little ones where there is one good large one.
If this work shall have aided any lover of the dog in any direction desired, it shall have done its work. If it shall have failed, the public will surely be lenient in its criticism of
The Author.