All these little requirements and necessities may seem absurd to those who think a dog is a dog and nothing more; but we have bred generation after generation of toys to be in our constant company, and made them almost humanly intelligent, while, naturally, their small brains have no human balance; and that a nervous toy dog _does_ need such consideration will be granted, I am sure, by all successful breeders. At the same time, I am by no means advocating the silly system of over-petting and over-feeding, whereby dogs can be made a nuisance to themselves and every one else. Because a child must be taken care of, it does not follow that it need be spoiled: we ought to put a hat on its head when it goes out in the sun, but we need not walk beside it, holding an umbrella over it; and so with our small dogs--they must be watched and cared for, but they need not, and should not, be coddled and made silly.
I have no opinion of a dog which will not go out because it is raining, preferring to make itself objectionable in the house; or of one which leaves the small proportion of biscuit in its dinner and comes round scratching your arm for more meat; or of one which rushes back to the fire when a walk is suggested on a chilly day. Dogs like this have not been properly cared for; it is not affection for them, seeking their well-being, but downright silliness, which is responsible for their self-indulgent ways. Thanks be that toy dogs of this kind are becoming much less common, and indeed, in the case of any person desiring to keep them with an idea of profit, such ways would be discouraged by self-interest, for pampered dogs are not those which breed freely and do their puppies justice.
Where it is necessary that the dogs shall pay their way, it is of the first necessity that the inevitable expenses of starting and gaining experience shall be carefully considered. It is not a bad plan to get a little cheap dog, and see it through a litter before embarking in a "paying" breed, as where these are concerned it is useless to expect return unless a really good price has been paid for valuable stock to begin with. One does occasionally see such toys as Japs and Poms advertised very cheaply; and I have known people who studied these advertisements with rosy visions of "picking up" a bitch from an excellent strain, at a guinea or two--with some slight fault, like a few white hairs, to cheapen her--of breeding show stock from her and making a little fortune. Chances like this seldom come in the way of the novice. The best start a would-be breeder who is without any experience can have, is by placing herself in the hands of some one who has been successful, buying a young bitch which comes of a winning strain, though it may possess some fault, at a fair price--which will not be a small one--and taking the breeder's advice as to mating, etc. Or it is by no means a bad plan to buy a brace of unrelated young puppies and rear them. Of this, more in the chapter on breeding.