#tortora

Autumn turtledove

The attention to detail is just phenomenal. Every one of those scales comes with operational definitions of each and a description of what each level means, like this one for activity level:

Then each breed has a page where the author shows the range along each behavioral scale that most dogs of that breed fall within, along with some short notes. Some of the more popular breeds, like Toy Poodles, even have distinctions like "puppy mill" vs "well bred," with temperament ranges that vary accordingly. Here's the example for the Brittany:

I can transcribe these at request when I have a keyboard but right now I'm just nattering happily during an enjoyable activity, without much expectation that anyone will much care.

Woefully, 1980 is too early to have caught commentaries on cattle dogs--they wouldn't be recognized until 1985, IIRC--and of course the characters of several breeds have changed quite dramatically in the intervening 40 years. I bought the book more as a historical document than a guide, honestly, but I really wish someone would do something similar for the modern day. There are a few purported "honest guides to dog breeds," but nothing I'm aware of even close to this thorough, honest, and carefully cross checked against as wide a sample of people as possible. I've never seen anything else quite like it.