I have seen ladies buy up dog after dog, getting all those which beat theirs, and they never got a good dog at all, and got rid of a lot of money.

As an illustration, a lady may buy a good dog at a show. It gets about that she has given a big price for him, which may or may not be true, and this rouses up all the dealers, who think if they can eclipse him with another, she will give a still bigger price for the winner. The dog is, therefore, beaten in grand style at his next show, and she duly receives overtures from the owner of the winner, who talks confidentially to her friends in the hearing of the defeated owner. Her husband does not want her to keep a stud dog, she is reluctantly obliged to part with him. Dog given away at £250 (!!!). To this the friend cries out that it would be ridiculous to part with the dog for such a sum; the victim pricks up her ears, and most likely the confidential friend finds an opportunity for improving the occasion. The victim wavers, hesitates, and is lost; and thinks she has secured a bargain at £80, yet from that moment the dog's show career declines. He may win a third prize now and again, for "auld lang syne," but his meteoric brilliance is at an end. Beware, then, of sky-rockets. There are lots of dogs with these bubble reputations.

The order of march is as follows:

1. Preliminary hints of something wonderful coming.

2. Birth of puppy announced as a canine Prince of Wales, by letting off a sort of twenty-one gun salute in the newspapers.

3. With a ready-made reputation preceding him, he leads off under a friendly judge.

4. Dog bursting on the world and sweeping the decks.

5. Flaming reports in the newspapers.

6. Reported refusal of three figures.

7. Sale of dog at half the sum and four times its value to a novice.

8. Further success of dog under previous owner or relative of same.

9. Unaccountable collapse of dog, and V. H. C. card. Indifferent newspaper reports.

10. Astonishment of novice.

11. Third, Reserve and V. H. C. at the next dozen shows.

12. Recrimination with previous owner, who informs purchaser it is all his fault for showing the dog so badly.

13. Sale of dog for two pence three farthings, and final disappearance of the novice from the show ring.

My advice to all breeders is: Don't risk large sums on any dog, however good, unless you can afford to lose every penny of it the next day. Toy dogs' lives are a most uncertain foundation for speculation, and their show careers even more frail if possible.

Beginners are very apt, as I have said, to buy up all the winning dogs which they can lay hands on, thinking that they are making themselves a reputation. So they are, but the reputation is that of a greenhorn and a fool, and it is upon such folly that the dealers fatten. A Wealthy fool, otherwise "a good customer/' is the ideal prey for all the people who cannot sell their dogs to connoisseurs, and the greenhorn will soon collect round him useless stud dogs, barren bitches, and faulty prize winners of all types; some good Samaritan may occasionally give him a word of warning, but his vanity will not allow him to listen, and he thinks he is particularly clever in not being taken in by what he imagines is another clever attempt to prevent his getting a good dog. He is on the lookout for swindles, and never recognizes them when he sees them. All this comes from buying before you know the breed you are taking up, and my advice is: Go to all the best shows and watch the judging and study the type for at least a year before you spend a sixpence on buying a show dog.

Resolutely refuse to be drawn into purchasing any dog at all till your elementary apprenticeship is past.

In the present state of things among the Toy Spaniel fanciers, my advice to novices is: Don't spend your money until you are sure that the dog is good enough for you to be proud and glad to possess it, even if it does not win after you have bought it. One of the secrets of success in the show ring is never to advertise your dogs at stud, as there is nothing that rouses such bitterness and enmities as competition with the people who run stud dogs, and who are likely to judge them. You will get plenty of stud work without advertising if you show your dogs, and they are good ones.

Don't show more than two dogs at any one show under the same judge, as however good they are, he will take the opportunity of putting back some of them, unless he is a very independent and fair man. Your best plan is to show one good and one bad dog, the latter will make the running for the former; the judge, if he does not want to offend you, has the satisfaction of putting the bad one back and showing his impartiality towards you as an individual, and if it is not a bad one he will put it back all the same, only this will make you angry whereas the other will not.

Under most judges you will probably be far more successful with a mediocre dog than with a flyer. A flyer immediately rouses violent jealousy, and if anything half as good appears you will be beaten, whereas as an ordinary thing judges, if their sense of rivalry is allowed to sleep, don't want to offend you, especially if you are a possible purchaser of their own stock, and will light-heartedly put up your moderately good dog, as they know they have nothing to fear from him. Ladies often have a very poor time showing under members of their own sex, as in addition to jealousy of the dogs there is often personal jealousy mixed up with it as well.

You will find this advice perfectly sound, though I am sure I do not know what the idealist secretary of the Kennel Club will say to it.

There is no reason why dog dealers should not be honest, and my experience of the poorer dealers is, that they are far more so than those that are well to do. The worst kind of dog dealer is the "lady " dealer, who pretends to be what she is not. Kennels that buy up all the cheap stuff that is to be had, and whose premises are always full of new dogs, are inevitably always contaminated by mange and distemper. Any one who has tried the experiment of constantly buying new dogs, even with the most careful isolation will know what I say is true. These people will never have their show dogs in good coat and always have some excuse ready. The bitches have always just whelped, and the dogs are always just changing their coats.

Therefore beware of buying from big kennels unless you have been all over them yourself, and verified that the dogs are in first-class condition. If this is so you may be sure that the owner is a bona fide breeder and not a dealer only, and my advice is to buy from a bona fide breeder or from a small dealer, never from a big dealer, unless his dogs stand the test above mentioned, and when you buy be sure the dog really belongs to the seller and is not just picked up for you out of the highways and hedges.

I have never had any luck with big dealers myself, and it was not until I began buying from the smaller people that I began to be fairly treated. By small dealers I do not mean dog shops. Beware of dog shops as you value your money. The small dealers are rather difficult to get at as they seldom attend shows, or advertise stock for sale, but they generally run a stud dog, at a small fee, and if you look down the stud columns of the dog papers, you will get to know the sort of thing.