This is not such an easy matter as it sounds at the first blush, for I have known men and women spend many an anxious hour before they could make up their minds as to what breed they should keep. The choice is so wide, the variety sufficiently great to be bewildering. If the dog is wanted purely for sporting purposes, of course the field is narrowed at once, and you cannot do better than consult some experienced friend who will tell you which is best adapted to the country in which you live. Should you be fond of hound work and yet cannot run to the finest of all sports, fox-hunting, you may derive endless pleasure from the possession of a couple or even a single bloodhound. You can work them whenever you please, so long as a man or boy is available to act as runner; you can pick your country, and you need not worry about sheep or seeds, because the hunted man can take any direction you desire. If you have no horse you can arrange a circular course, and watch the hound working, with the aid of a pair of field-glasses. You can study many interesting problems of scent by varying your day and hour, and I guarantee that if you are an enthusiast you will have no reason to regret your choice of one of these noble hounds.

If it is your intention to do a little breeding, it is well to bear in mind that the larger breeds require more attention and are much more difficult to rear satisfactorily, for to grow a puppy to great size requires much skill and patience, and it is no easy thing to get them straight in front or free from cow-hocks behind. A larger dog, too, necessarily costs more to keep than a small one. You would be surprised at the amount of food a litter of hungry six-weeks-old puppies can put away in the course of twenty-four hours.

If you simply want a house pet or guard, you have further to consider whether you will have a pedigree dog from one of the prominent show strains, or whether you will be content with one of humbler lineage. A well-bred dog gives greater pleasure to the eye and is more or less a pride to his possessor, but he will probably be more delicate until you have got him through his early troubles, and he will cost you more money at the outset. Few breeders of repute care to accept less than four or five guineas for quite a moderate sort of puppy, and if you want a good one of its kind you would have to pay double. If you contemplate breeding with a view to ultimate exhibiting your best plan will be to consult some acknowledged expert, should you be fortunate enough to know of one, for a little advice at the beginning will spare you many disappointments and much hard cash. Remember that for this purpose it is no use going in for the cheap and nasty strains, for your puppies will probably be worthless when you get them, and you will have wasted valuable time.

People will not give a decent figure for a young dog that is not of the correct strain, unless he happens by chance to have particularly excellent points, and, even then, they would hesitate about paying a long price for him, as they would feel no conviction that he would be capable of reproducing his merits. Therefore a few pounds more expended at first must be regarded as a judicious investment.

If it is a sporting dog that you are seeking for working purposes only, you need not trouble your head about show strains, but go to some trustworthy keeper and get him to find what you want. Here again, however, if you prefer an animal with a sound pedigree, it may be pointed out that there are certain strains combining show and working blood. As a rule, it is advisable to avoid exaggerated types, and to choose a dog that looks to you to be built on workmanlike lines, and that appears to be hard and vigorous, with a frame capable of standing a long day in the field.

In selecting a puppy, if you have half an eye you should be able to see at a glance if he looks healthy and strong. Pick one that handles nicely, with skin loose and clean, eye bright, and legs sound. Look well at his coat in order to detect any signs of eczema, and examine his mouth to see if he is under- or over-shot. There is no exact method of telling the age of an adult dog, but few reach four or five without showing grey hairs about the muzzle or betraying their years in their teeth. Discoloration of the teeth is not necessarily an indication of age, as it is more often than not a result of distemper, but there is a general look about a dog that reaches his fifth year which is not easily mistakable. As a rule, it is inadvisable to buy a dog after his third year, when you may consider that he is about in his prime. Some breeds age much more rapidly than others, but you may take it that life is not worth much after the ninth or tenth year.

The best way of ascertaining the names and addresses of the leading breeders is by consulting the columns of one of the kennel papers, or by obtaining the catalogue of one of the chief shows, the names and addresses of the exhibitors being published at the end.

It is almost an impossibility for a novice to select the best puppy from a litter, and he must throw himself upon the fair dealing of the breeder if he has no friend at hand to consult. Puppies have a habit of changing so much in appearance as they grow that only the skilled man can say which is likely to make the best. For instance, in one variety with which I am particularly acquainted, a long, narrow head is a desideratum, but if you took the puppy with the finest head you would probably find that he would be too small and snipy when he had matured. Two clever young men, suffering from a little knowledge, once wished to purchase a puppy, for which they were prepared to pay a long price, and the breeder indicated the best, which happened to have the thickest head in the litter. This, however, did not satisfy the buyers, who went away quite happy in the possession of an inferior specimen, which happened to have the finest skull. The fact that some varieties change in colour as they reach adult age has led to many amusing blunders on the part of the inexpert.