I was reading a novel this summer, and one statement amongst a great many good ones impressed me.  It stated “that all men were divided into two classes:  those that behaved themselves, and those who did not.”  We all know that society has divided men into many classes, but I think any thoughtful man will confess, in the last analysis, that the novelist’s classification was the correct one.  I need not apply the moral.

It will be somewhat of a temptation to resist taking what a party, liberally supplied with this world’s goods, will frequently in their ignorance offer for a dog that appeals to them, but which the owner knows perfectly well is not worth the price offered.  If he belongs to the class that behaves themselves he will tell the prospective buyer what the dog is intrinsically worth, and point out the reasons why he is not worth more.  You may depend that you have not only obtained a customer for life, but one that will readily advertise your kennels under all circumstances.  I shall have to ask the reader to overlook the apparent egotism of the statements I am now about to make, but as this book is largely the outgrowth of the author’s own experience, of necessity personal matters are spoken of.

A number of years ago I received an order from the Western coast, through a Boston house, for a good all-round puppy at two hundred dollars.  I sent the puppy on, and much to the surprise of the customer, stated my price for him would be one hundred instead of two.  The pup matured into a very nice dog, as I expected he would, being a Cracksman pup out of a good bitch.  What has been the result of this treatment?  Ever since (and no later than yesterday), orders for dogs from this gentleman have been coming right along.

Another case, and this is only a sample of several from the same city:  A number of years back a New York lady, accompanied by her husband, came to our kennels to purchase a dog.  I had quite a handsome litter of five or six months old pups by “Merk Jr.,” out of Buster stock on the dam’s side, one of which, a perfectly marked seal brindle female, at once took her fancy, and she said:  “We have just come from another large kennel in Boston where they asked us three hundred dollars for a little female I do not like nearly as well as this one.”  Her husband was one of the leading men of one of the largest trusts in the country, and money was apparently no object, and when I replied, “Mrs. Keller, that dog you select is not worth over fifty dollars (the price I afterwards sold her for) and the best dog in the litter I shall be glad to let you have for seventy-five,” she seemed much surprised.  I then, of course, told her that the dogs were not worth more as their muzzles were not deep enough to be worth a higher price than I wanted.  I recently received a letter from her stating that her dog was still as active and much loved as ever, and the number of orders that have come to me through the sale of this dog would surprise the owners of those kennels who stick their customers with an outrageous price, and who find to their sorrow that no subsequent orders ever come, either from the customer or any one else in the vicinity.  People have a way sooner or later (usually sooner) in discovering when they have been overcharged and act accordingly.