Chapter 1 - The Breeding Of Dogs As A Creative Art

The impulse to create which is so urgent an attribute of the human spirit can and does find its release in the breeding of dogs. In his ability to ordain the existence of a new organism and to order what it shall be like, the breeder realizes a power that is but little short of godlike.

Bringing together the germ plasma of two dogs from which to mold a third to his own liking, he becomes a veritable sculptor in living flesh. Any critical verdict about his creature as a work of art must rest upon whether or not the breeder has employed the right materials in the right manner best to approximate the breeder's ideal dog of any specific breed.

For a fine dog may well be a work of art. However, if the dog be merely the result of the unplanned, chance union of the parental * gametes, the words art and artistry can hardly be applied to its production. The person who passes as breeder of such a one is not a breeder at all but merely the possessor of the dam at the time of her copulation with the sire.

It is futile to deny that good dogs do so arise. Indeed, it was not until recent years that enough was known of the reproductive processes to permit of more than merely the mating of the best available male to the best available female and trusting to luck (and her excellence was considered as of only minor moment). Much credit is due to the practical breeders of those earlier years who did, indeed, choose their breeding stock carefully and mate the best to the best and who utilized to the extent of their ability such empiric knowledge of the breeding as was available. All of the older breeds of domestic livestock were so developed.

That such procedure failed so often is easier to comprehend than that it succeeded at all. Even of those who best utilized the limited knowledge which was available, indeed, especially of those, it is safe to assert that the mantle of success fell only upon the shoulders of the fortunate. With the knowledge now available, improvement of the various breeds might have gone ahead at a much faster pace.

*A glossary of technical terms is to be found on pages 249-258.

The earlier successful breeders had their ideals. They knew what they wanted. And many of their ideals were more practical and serviceable than some that we now entertain. They also had the materials with which to realize their ideals, but they did not know how to use them.

To employ inbreeding required courage in the face of the prejudices against it and in the face of the presumed hazards of such a procedure. But it was only by inbreeding that the varieties could be developed and stabilized. We know now wherein lie the dangers of inbreeding and how we may achieve its benefits without the risks of its incorrect employment.

The older breeders accepted as valid a host of taboos and hocus-pocus beliefs that we now know to be mere superstitions, although many present day producers (we shall not call them breeders) of livestock continue to subscribe to them. Little was known of veterinary science, and distemper could wipe out a whole kennel in a few days.

We have yet many worlds to conquer in practical genetics, but enough is known to enable us to proceed with our breeding operations with a confidence impossible even fifty years ago. The vast improvement and greater uniformity of the various breeds of dogs is an earnest that the breeders are utilizing their new knowledge.

What a breeder seeks to produce, the ideal he formulates, is self-expression. His choice of a breed with which he works is a reflection of his personality. The emphasis he places upon soundness, or head, or coats, in the choice of his breeding stock, declares his own nature. He who would achieve beautiful arbitrary markings and color at the cost of honest structure is a different kind of person from him who prefers a correctly made dog.

And it is in this self-expression, this fulfillment of the creative urge, that lies the joy of breeding dogs. The mere possession of a dog may be achieved by purchase, gift, or theft, and much pride, pleasure, and companionship may result from such possession. However, the thrill of achievement, the emotional satisfaction of the impulse to create, cannot be achieved by the mere possession of a dog, no matter how excellent a one, that somebody else has bred. That joy is the breeder's.

Just as the painter of a great picture, selling it to some parvenu, retains the emotional effect that arises from self-expression, so the breeder of a good dog, who sells his masterpiece to a mere dog show mug-hunter, does not along with the dog sell the satisfaction and joy of having bred him.

Insofar as the breeder formulates an ideal in his own mind of what he wishes to produce, and insofar as he bends his efforts as a breeder to the realization of that ideal, just insofar is he a creative artist. His medium of expression is the living protoplasm of the animals with which he chooses to work.

This is, of course, not to say that all ideals are valid ones or that the embodiments of them are all 'successful. There are good painters and bad painters and there are good breeders of dogs and bad breeders of dogs. Even a good painter turns out some mediocre or bad pictures and breeders of good dogs will sometimes produce some indifferent ones. But, in the mental conception of a worthy end, there is the pleasure of the effort and, in the approximation of the product to the breeder's ideal, there is a spiritual fillip which only the creative artist can feel.

To assert that the breeding of fine dogs is an art does not imply that it is not also a science. Art and science are by no means mutually exclusive. In this art, as in all others, science is its handmaid. Science is the means employed to attain the conceived ideal, whereas the breeder's art lies in the conception of the ideal and in the skillful employment of the means to attain it.

Another chapter of this book, entitled "Know What You Want," is devoted to the formulation of the ideal. The chapters immediately ensuing are given to a discussion of the science of reproduction and the latter chapters of the book to the application of that scientific knowledge to the art of breeding fine dogs.

The purpose of our emphasis upon the creatively artistic aspect of dog breeding is not an apology for an activity which requires no apology. It is not an effort to dignify and ennoble an endeavor which is as dignified and noble, and only as dignified and noble, as the man or woman who engages in it. That purpose is rather to imbue the breeder and the would-be breeder with that spirit of serious aspiration which motivates the artist, whatever his medium. It causes one to forget that "Art is long and time is fleeting," and to remember only that "Beauty is its own excuse for being."

Fine dogs of whatever breed are things of beauty. The consistent production of them through the intelligent employment of the laws of heredity to perpetuate the desirable in the ancestral germ plasma s and to eliminate the undesirable is artistry of a high order. And it is as an art, with a full awareness of it as such, and only so, that the breeding of dogs should be seriously undertaken.

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