I have one particular litter of cocker spaniels in mind when I speak of the development of personality. These little fellows were line bred to a bitch who had been an outstanding winner a few years previously. She was a golden, combining gaiety, affection, and vanity in her dis­position. The sire was a tricolor, the most aggressive spaniel I have ever seen. A queer mating, you might say —a tricolor mated to a golden—but I had studied the pedigrees of both sire and dam, and the results more than justified my choice.

The five puppies were whelped on Christmas Eve, and at birth looked none too promising. Three were black and white, and two solid black! At three weeks they were showing definite characteristics of temperament. One little black bitch was as coy and loving as her mother. A pat on her sleek black head sent her into spasms of delight. The other black, a bitch also, was the show-off in the litter, and her chief delight was in annoying the others when she was not making a play for my attention.

The baby of the lot was a little fellow so small that he had to be helped at feeding time to keep his place in the line-up of voracious youngsters. The consensus of opin­ion among the breeders who saw him was that I should do away with him and give the others that much more chance to develop, but he was so beautifully marked that could not bring myself to do it. When he started stum­bling around, the others bullied him and made his life miserable, until the day he discovered that he had teeth and that they were of some use to him. Then it was a different story. He was small but he had plenty of cour­age, and it was not long before they all learned to re­spect his rights. And he was the first of my dogs to sign on for active service as mascot on a destroyer.

The fourth puppy had little of his sire’s aggressive­ness. He was a happy little dog who learned his lessons in public sanitation quickly, and generally respected the rights of others.

The fifth, however, was the bully of the litter. He looked about as unpromising as any puppy could, but he was aggressive and he was his mother’s favorite. He was always at the front of the line at meal-time. At two weeks he had grown so much bigger that he could push his way in wherever he choose, and he always chose the very best nipple. By the time he was six months old he was a swaggering bully, and I had to prove to him that I was boss. It took the laying on of hands nine times in two days, but at the end of that time he knew. I felt brutal when I whipped him, but in his case it was the only way. From then on I never had to raise my voice to him, much less punish him. And when the fall show came around, he won the trophy for the best puppy, hands down.

That is giving only one litter as an example, but as each new one comes along, the point is proved. No two puppies are ever exactly alike, either in physical quali­ties or in temperament; yet the laws of heredity are demonstrated in each one.

For instance, the sire of this litter was light boned, but all the puppies were heavy, like their mother. On the other hand, the dam had much less to do with their color. Although she was golden herself, her sire—the grand-sire of the puppies—was black. They inherited short bodies from the dam, while the predominating features of their dispositions appeared to come from the sire.

However, to draw any important conclusions from this mating would require repeating it many times, and keep­ing careful-records of the results. Some day it is my ambition to line breed a dog and bitch, and then at every opportunity to breed this same pair, keeping records from start to finish. In this way, I shall have a chance to observe the laws of heredity actually at work. But that is for the future. For the present, like most other breeders, I must rely on the invaluable work which has been done by investigators such as Mendel and Morgan.

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Another thing to keep in mind is that dogs are like human beings in this respect: The better their surround­ings and the healthier the dogs, the better their offspring will be. Children born in the slums, or puppies whelped under adverse conditions, seldom reach the top in physi­cal development. Therefore, before the subject of breed­ing is touched upon, the beginner would do well to study what goes to make a healthy and contented dog.

What is the most important thing in a dog’s life? At the risk of being laughed to scorn, I am going to answer that with one word: love. I do not mean maudlin senti­mentality, but honest love. As in man, I believe that this is the first requisite to real happiness, and that food comes a poor second. If the prospective breeder does not love dogs, he should keep away from them. The man or woman who breeds purely for monetary reward never yet produced a puppy which went to the top, or even well up, in his breed. Given the opportunity, a dog can supply most of his bodily needs himself, but not love, that mystic relation between dog and master.

That, to my mind, is the first and greatest command­ment in the breeding of dogs. Love them and understand them, but do not shower them with maudlin affection. No dog wants to have baby talk burbled at him all day. Remember, the only words he understands are those which have been taught to him by constant drilling. Treat him with dignity, except during his romping periods, and he will respect you for it. It is possible that I attribute more intelligence to my dogs than they actu­ally possess, but I would rather err in that direction than by underestimating them.

People who do not understand dogs would laugh at the idea that there are no two dogs alike and that they have separate personalities, just as is the case with human beings. That is an absolute fact, however, and these personalities begin to be apparent within a few weeks after birth. Just as soon as the puppies begin to waddle around like babies learning to walk, it becomes very evident that each one is quite unlike any of the others. One may be a bully, while another may be a shrinking violet. There is always the show-off, and quite often one with a sneaky streak. The bitch always has her favorite, too, and he is bound to receive small favors in the way of extra rations which hasten his develop­ment.

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