To buy imported or pedigreeless small toys for breeding is a complete lottery. Foreign breeders are extremely careless with regard to their strains, and purity of blood can never be depended on. Another point which must be insisted upon in relation to profitable toy breeding is the necessity for health in the kennel. I say kennel because it is a useful word, but am far from suggesting that toys of any kind should be kept in the way understood by "having a kennel" among larger dogs. The breeder who succeeds best is invariably the one who keeps one or two, or even four or five, pet bitches, running about the house enjoying full liberty and all the happiness of personal favourites, with, it may be, a dog also of the party. The breeder who is most troubled with skin complaints, distemper, lengthy vet's bills, and all the expenses, such as sick diet, which eat up profits, is the one who has built or fitted "kennels," no matter at what expense, and filled them with dogs.
CHAPTER II
Very small bitches, and especially those belonging to certain breeds which are known to be "shy," are not only often reluctant to breed at all, but are not infrequently very indifferent mothers, while there are great risks to the bitch in pupping where the sire is larger than herself, or where larger dogs occur in the immediate ancestry on either side. For these reasons, brood bitches are always wisely chosen of medium size, and mated to very tiny dogs. In all the breeds which come under the head of toys, smallness is a desideratum, but the practice of inbreeding which has been extensively resorted to cannot be too highly condemned; while the equally mistaken idea of attaining this end by under-feeding puppies has also contributed to the weakliness of constitution which is an immense drawback to some breeds. Reckoning size by weight is another faulty practice much against the true interests of toys, which we want to be small and healthy at the same time; for a very tiny dog, if compact and sturdy, may weigh much more than a leggy specimen which, to the eye, seems half as large again.
A bitch from 5 lbs. to 7 lbs., if, as I said before, of a small strain, may be safely used for breeding, and the smaller the dog the better, provided he is healthy. The plan of sending away bitches to a stud dog saves the expense of buying a dog of one's own; the sire's wins help to sell the puppies very materially, and the good offices of his owner may generally be reckoned upon to assist the novice; but there are other facets to the question.
These tiny dogs, which are frequently exhibited, are often very unreliable sires; they work too hard, and their owners are sometimes very indifferent as to whether the visiting bitches are satisfactorily attended to. True, the terms always do, or certainly always should, include a second visit free if the first proves fruitless, but there is the loss of time, the disappointment to the owner, and sometimes to the little bitch herself, who may have been quite anxious to breed and not have had a fair chance, and the trouble and expense of travelling for her. On the whole, I am much inclined to advise the novice to, at any rate, begin by rearing up a male puppy of such breeds as Pekingese and Griffons, or the scarcer toy Bulldogs, and using it for the home stud; for the other plan is less likely to result in disappointment when a little knowledge has been gained of the kennel world in general. This, of course, unless the whole thing is gone into under the ægis of some experienced owner, as before suggested. Some little bitches are exceedingly capricious, and will not take the least notice of a strange dog, where they would willingly mate with one they knew and liked; others are so upset by a journey and a strange place as to be useless pro tem.; others, again, instead of being ready to breed twice a year, as is the usual habit of female dogs, may only come in season once in twelve months, and then but fugitively. In such cases it is a positive necessity to have a dog on the spot. Where a sire must be chosen from among strangers, his points should correct any in which the bitch is deficient; your toy pug may have too small a head, with little wrinkle—you must look for a dog with good head properties as her mate; your Pom may be long in back, and you must seek a male with the opposite quality, and a plume well over and touching his frill.
The first puppies of two young dogs are generally larger than the parents, but I do not believe the theory often advanced that the first litter is always the best. Puppies by a very old sire are usually small.
A toy bitch, if sent away, should be carefully packed in a roomy, warm basket; the provision of draughty, tumble-to-pieces baskets is false economy, both for show and breeding purposes. If possible, a toy dog of either sex should have a cosy little basket kennel, with a door, which it can use at home as a sleeping-place, and in which it can travel; the basket can be fitted with an outer case of wood for greater security, but the dog will stand the journey much better if it is in a familiar basket. Something with a peaked or rounded top should be chosen; the ventilation being safer in this, as flat-sided and flat-topped packages may be so crowded upon with others in a guard's van as to suffocate the inmate.
