As I have already said, there is a right and a wrong type of noseless dog, and my advice is directed to securing the prettiest of the noseless types. In breeding Blenheims and Tricolours, my advice is, breed primarily for shape, and in the second place for markings. When you have got a stock which breeds true to type, with sound bodies and good heads it is comparatively easy to get the markings right without losing the type. Do not be in a hurry. A mismarked King Charles Black-and-tan bitch (that is to say, the offspring of a Blenheim or Tricolour with a King Charles), is the best possible mother for breeding Tricolour champions. Mated to a Blenheim you will probably get one perfect Tricolour (perhaps two) out of each litter, and the excellence of head will be well worth the sacrifice of breeding a couple of others in the same litter which will not be well marked enough for show under ordinary judges. Any Black-and-tan bitch will not do. The one you choose must have the round face, round skull, and pretty expression which are essential to success, and she must come of short-nosed stock, even if she is not short herself.

If you breed Blenheim to Blenheim time after time, it is impossible to keep up the monstrous points now considered good. If left entirely to themselves they will rapidly and surely revert to the original short but pointed nosed type, but owing to the Marlborough cross it will probably not be the right pointed nosed type. They can, however, be kept quite "noseless" enough by careful selection. It is a very remarkable fact that a Blenheim when mated to a Blenheim will never produce anything but a Blenheim, however much Black-and-tan, Ruby, or Tricolour blood may be in the pedigree. I have never come across an authentic instance of this, and people have often asserted the contrary, but the evidence produced has not been evidence one could accept as conclusive. Where a lot of dogs of all varieties are kept there is always a possibility of doubtful parentage, and in all the cases brought to my notice I have found that the breeders owned a Tricolour dog as well as the supposed Blenheim sire. If two Tricolours ever get a Blenheim the case is so rare that I cannot quote a single proved instance of it.

The two cases brought to my notice can only be classed as unproved assertions.

The Blenheim is the oldest and dominant breed. In Blenheims other colours never reappear so long as individuals bred in this way are mated to the same colour as themselves. For instance, a Blenheim mated to a Tricolour will get both Blenheims and Tricolours, but should one of the Blenheim progeny be mated exclusively to Blenheims it will never produce a Tricolour. A King Charles mated to a Blenheim or Tricolour will produce Black-and-tans with white patches on chest, feet or head; or equally mismarked Rubies. Mate the offspring to a Blenheim, and you will get some properly marked Blenheims or Tricolours and a good many mismarked puppies, and this is certainly the best way of getting show points in Tricolours,1 A Black-and-tan mated to a Ruby or Black-and-tan will get whole coloured poppies, but if you wish to keep the tan bright on the King Charles you must select the tan or occasionally cross with Ruby, otherwise the tan gets gradually darker and is eventually lost altogether. Black-and-tans when mated to Black-and-tans always show a tendency to produce white markings, and this comes from the original breed. The original colour was not all black, but had a white waistcoat, and in breeding there is always a tendency to reversion in colour as well as in type.

It will be seen, therefore, that when breeding for show points it is necessary to cross the two varieties with judgment so as to obtain the best results.

But, though the Tricolour would probably be too much inbred to continue on its own account unless periodically re-created and revived by a Black-and-tan and Blenheim cross, yet, as far as colours and type are concerned, it is a perfectly true breed. I wish to make it quite clear that the Blenheim Red-and-white breed is perfectly independent of any other variety. It is the trueness with which Red-and-white breeds to Red-and-white and Tricolour to Tricolour which marks them as worthy of separate challenge prizes. Black-and-tans do not exhibit the same trueness, and therefore can justly be classed with the Rubies. The Ruby with white marks, however, also breeds true.

Good coated strains are essential. The Champion Little Tommy strain is far and away the best coated Blenheim strain, and the Champion Royal Clyde and Macduff the best coated King Charles strains.

1 Tricolours always exhibit the red or fire markings in the orthodox pattern and are never hound-marked or indiscriminately red, white, and black like a guinea pig.

There are many good coated Tricolour strains, but no Ruby strain that has what I consider even a second-class coat. Choose your strains with great care. The Cherub strains combined with Deepdene, Charlie Peace, Hiawatha, Wild, Rococo, and Marvel blood are some of the very best for type, but Marvel is not good for coat Miss Witt's and Miss App's strains are my favourites for all-round quality and small size. These breeders had a great eye for pretty expressions and never owned coarse dogs. In King Charles the best strains are Rococo, Highland Lad, Royal Clyde and Macduff, and in Rubies, Champion Royal Rip and my own Marvel, but I consider the former a better all-round dog than the latter. If you should breed a very good puppy from a certain sire and dam, do not on any account break the connection. This would seem almost superfluous advice, but it is astonishing how often people having succeeded once with one sire will try another perhaps handsomer sire, thinking to do even better, with the result that not only do they not get as good a puppy as they did before, but on reverting to the original combination they fail even to repeat their first experience, whereas, if they steadily stick to the original connection, they may go on getting a first-rate puppy in every litter.