Dogs and All about Them

The foregoing chapters have given abundant examples of how the various breeds of the dog have been acquired, manufactured, improved, resuscitated, and retained. Broadly speaking, two methods have been adopted: The method of introducing an outcross to impart new blood, new strength, new character; and the method of inbreeding to retain an approved type. An outcross is introduced when the breed operated upon is declining in stamina or is in danger of extinction, or when some new physical or mental quality is desired. New types and eccentricities are hardly wanted, however, and the extreme requirements of an outcross may nowadays be achieved by the simple process of selecting individuals from differing strains of the same breed, mating a bitch which lacks the required points with a dog in whose family they are prominently and consistently present.