File:The book of dogs; an intimate study of mankind's best friend (1919) (20388186502).jpg

Title: The book of dogs; an intimate study of mankind's best friend
Identifier: bookofdogsintima00nati (find matches)
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: National Geographic Society (U. S. ); Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927; Baynes, Ernest Harold, 1868-1925
Subjects: Dogs
Publisher: Washington, D. C. , The National geographic society
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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THE NATTOXAL (IF.rxiRAPHlC MAGAZINE
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^^^:;>5Ks^^ < »fficial photugrayili taken on the British front in France 'TAKING HIS MICSSAGE TO GARCIa" While the soldier in the world war was actuated by motives of patriotism, the main- spring of tlie dog's service in the great conflict was dauntless fidelity to its master. Neither hazards of terrain nor of battle could stop the dumb courier when bearing a message from the front-line trenches to the keeper in the rear. The illustration shows a British war messenger dog in the front area swimming across a canal to reach his master and deliver a message. Sooner or later man would discover that certain individual dogs were swifter or stronger than their fellows and there- fore more useful in the hunt. These would be encouraged to accompany him; the others would be left at home. The less useful dogs would gradually be elim- inated—driven away from the home or killed—and the swifter, stronger dogs re- tained. We can imagine that this process of weeding out might continue until a distinct breed of hunting dogs was devel- oped. As dogs were required for other pur- poses—for guarding property, or even for household pets—other qualities might be encouraged and other breeds evolved. The varieties produced in different re- gions would be likely to differ from one another partly by reason of the differ- ence in the wild forms from which they sprang, partly because of the difference in the lines along which they were devel- oped. In the inevitable intercourse between peoples from different regions there would surely be an exchange of dogs, ac- cidental or otherwise, and the result would be new varieties which in the course of ages and under widely varying conditions, including finally selective breeding, might eventually produce the many widely differing breeds we see to- day. THE ANCESTORS OF OUR DOMESTIC DOG Have you ever been to a dog show? I mean a big one like the Westminster Kennel Club show in New York, with 3,000 dogs on the benches and over a hun- dred different breeds represented? If you have, perhaps you have been im- pressed, as I have been, with the marvel- ous varietv of forms to be seen.

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