Prior to 1873 there were no registering bodies for dogs, no pedigrees, no breed standards. The domestic dog has presumably been associated with humankind for the past 13,000 years, but the majority of breeds are no older than 130 years. In that short time period, there has been much change and development, mainly with the human's taste and interests taking precedence over the dog. This book questions if such a general approach is appropriate and if the purebred dog initiative since its inception has indeed improved the breeds under manipulation. Are our purebred dogs at the onset of the twenty-first century mentally and physically fitter than the stock from which they were extracted? Have the selectively bred breeds indeed been inproved in respect of canine needs or was the effort rather an ornamental achievement? Did failures occur and what went wrong? Providing an interesting prospective on the world of purebred dogs, where it has been, and where it is going, this book belongs in