Thanks to the influence of the Kennel Club and the institution of dog shows, which have encouraged the improvement of distinct breeds, there are fewer nondescript mongrels in our midst than there were a generation or so ago. A fuller knowledge has done much to increase the pride which the British people take in their canine companions, and our present population of dogs has never been equalled for good quality in any other age or any other land.

The beginner cannot easily go wrong or be seriously cheated, but it is well when making a first purchase to take the advice of an expert and to be very certain of the dog's pedigree, age, temper, and condition. The approved method of buying a dog is to select one advertised for sale in the weekly journals devoted to the dog. A better way still, if a dog of distinguished pedigree is desired, is to apply direct to a well-known owner of the required breed, or to visit one of the great annual shows, such as Cruft's, Manchester, The Ladies' Kennel Association, The Kennel Club (Crystal Palace, in October), The Scottish Kennel Club, or Birmingham, and there choose the dog from the benches, buying him at his catalogue price.

In determining the choice of a breed it is to be remembered that some are better watchdogs than others, some more docile, some safer with children. The size of the breed should be relative to the accommodation available. To have a St. Bernard or a Great Dane galumphing about a small house is an inconvenience, and sporting dogs which require constant exercise and freedom are not suited to the confined life of a Bloomsbury flat. Nor are the long-haired breeds at their best draggling round in the wet, muddy streets of a city. For town life the clean-legged Terrier, the Bulldog, the Pug, and the Schipperke are to be preferred. Bitches are cleaner in the house and more tractable than dogs. The idea that they are more trouble than dogs is a fallacy. The difficulty arises only twice in a twelvemonth for a few days, and if you are watchful there need be no misadventure.

If only one dog, or two or three of the smaller kinds, be kept, there is no imperative need for an outdoor kennel, although all dogs are the better for life in the open air. The house-dog may be fed with meat-scraps from the kitchen served as an evening meal, with rodnim or a dry biscuit for breakfast. The duty of feeding him should be in the hands of one person only. When it is everybody's and nobody's duty he is apt to be neglected at one time and overfed at another. Regularity of feeding is one of the secrets of successful dog-keeping. It ought also to be one person's duty to see that he has frequent access to the yard or garden, that he gets plenty of clean drinking water, plenty of outdoor exercise, and a comfortable bed.

For the toy and delicate breeds it is a good plan to have a dog-room set apart, with a suitable cage or basket-kennel for each dog.

Even delicate Toy dogs, however, ought not to be permanently lodged within doors, and the dog-room is only complete when it has as an annexe a grass plot for playground and free exercise. Next to wholesome and regular food, fresh air and sunshine are the prime necessaries of healthy condition. Weakness and disease come more frequently from injudicious feeding and housing than from any other cause. Among the free and ownerless pariah dogs of the East disease is almost unknown.

For the kennels of our British-bred dogs, perhaps a southern or a south-western aspect is the best, but wherever it is placed the kennel must be sufficiently sheltered from rain and wind, and it ought to be provided with a covered run in which the inmates may have full liberty. An awning of some kind is necessary. Trees afford good shelter from the sun-rays, but they harbour moisture, and damp must be avoided at all costs. When only one outdoor dog is kept, a kennel can be improvised out of a packing-case, supported on bricks above the ground, with the entrance properly shielded from the weather. No dog should be allowed to live in a kennel in which he cannot turn round at full length. Properly constructed, portable, and well-ventilated kennels for single dogs are not expensive and are greatly to be preferred to any amateurish makeshift. A good one for a terrier need not cost more than a pound. It is usually the single dog that suffers most from imperfect accommodation. His kennel is generally too small to admit of a good bed of straw, and if there is no railed-in run attached he must needs be chained up. The dog that is kept on the chain becomes dirty in his habits, unhappy, and savage. His chain is often too short and is not provided with swivels to avert kinks. On a sudden alarm, or on the appearance of a trespassing tabby, he will often bound forward at the risk of dislocating his neck. The yard-dog's chain ought always to be fitted with a stop link spring to counteract the effect of the sudden jerk. The method may be employed with advantage in the garden for several dogs, a separate rope being used for each. Unfriendly dogs can thus be kept safely apart and still be to some extent at liberty.

There is no obvious advantage in keeping a watch-dog on the chain rather than in an enclosed compound, unless he is expected to go for a possible burglar and attack him. A wire-netting enclosure can easily be constructed at very little expense. For the more powerful dogs the use of wrought-iron railings is advisable, and these can be procured cheaply from Spratt's or Boulton and Paul's, fitted with gates and with revolving troughs for feeding from the outside.

Opinions differ as to the best material for the flooring of kennels and the paving of runs. Asphalte is suitable for either in mild weather, but in summer it becomes uncomfortably hot for the feet, unless it is partly composed of cork. Concrete has its advantages if the surface can be kept dry. Flagstones are cold for winter, as also are tiles and bricks. For terriers, who enjoy burrowing, earth is the best ground for the run, and it can be kept free from dirt and buried bones by a rake over in the morning, while tufts of grass left round the margins supply the dogs' natural medicine. The movable sleeping bench must, of course, be of wood, raised a few inches above the floor, with a ledge to keep in the straw or other bedding. Wooden floors are open to the objection that they absorb the urine; but dogs should be taught not to foul their nest, and in any case a frequent disinfecting with a solution of Pearson's or Jeyes' fluid should obviate impurity, while fleas, which take refuge in the dust between the planks, may be dismissed or kept away with a sprinkling of paraffin. Whatever the flooring, scrupulous cleanliness in the kennel is a prime necessity, and the inner walls should be frequently limewashed. It is important, too, that no scraps of rejected food or bones should be left lying about to become putrid or to tempt the visits of rats, which bring fleas. If the dogs do not finish their food when it is served to them, it should be removed until hunger gives appetite for the next meal.

Many breeders of the large and thick-coated varieties, such as St. Bernards, Newfoundlands, Old English Sheepdogs, and rough-haired Collies, give their dogs nothing to lie upon but clean bare boards. The coat is itself a sufficient cushion, but in winter weather straw gives added warmth, and for short-haired dogs something soft, if it is only a piece of carpet or a sack, is needed as a bed to protect the hocks from abrasion.

With regard to feeding, this requires to be studied in relation to the particular breed. One good meal a day, served by preference in the evening, is sufficient for the adult if a dry dog-cake or a handful of rodnim be given for breakfast, and perhaps a large bone to gnaw at. Clean cold water must always be at hand in all weathers, and a drink of milk coloured with tea is nourishing. Goat's milk is particularly suitable for the dog: many owners keep goats on their premises to give a constant supply. It is a mistake to suppose, as many persons do, that meat diet provokes eczema and other skin troubles; the contrary is the case. The dog is by nature a carnivorous animal, and wholesome flesh, either cooked or raw, should be his staple food. Horseflesh, which is frequently used in large establishments, is not so fully to be relied upon as ordinary butcher meat. There is no serious objection to bullocks' heads, sheeps' heads, bullocks' tripes and paunches and a little liver given occasionally is an aperient food which most dogs enjoy. But when it can be afforded, wholesome butcher's meat is without question the proper food. Oatmeal porridge, rice, barley, linseed meal, and bone meal ought only to be regarded as occasional additions to the usual meat diet, and are not necessary when dog cakes are regularly supplied. Well-boiled green vegetables, such as cabbage, turnip-tops, and nettle-tops, are good mixed with the meat; potatoes are questionable. Of the various advertised dog foods, many of which are excellent, the choice may be left to those who are fond of experiment, or who seek for convenient substitutes for the old-fashioned and wholesome diet of the household. Sickly dogs require invalid's treatment; but the best course is usually the simplest, and, given a sound constitution to begin with, any dog ought to thrive if he is only properly housed, carefully fed, and gets abundant exercise.



CHAPTER L

BREEDING AND WHELPING

The modern practice of dog-breeding in Great Britain has reached a condition which may be esteemed as an art. At no other time, and in no other country, have the various canine types been kept more rigidly distinct or brought to a higher level of perfection. Formerly dog-owners—apart from the keepers of packs of hounds—paid scant attention to the differentiation of breeds and the conservation of type, and they considered it no serious breach of duty to ignore the principles of scientific selection, and thus contribute to the multiplication of mongrels. Discriminate breeding was rare, and if a Bulldog should mate himself with a Greyhound, or a Spaniel with a Terrier, the alliance was regarded merely as an inconvenience. So careless were owners in preventing the promiscuous mingling of alien breeds that it is little short of surprising so many of our canine types have been preserved in their integrity.

The elimination of the nondescript cur is no doubt largely due to the work of the homes for lost dogs that are instituted in most of our great towns. Every year some 26,000 homeless and ownerless canines are picked up by the police in the streets of London, and during the forty-seven years which have elapsed since the Dogs' Home at Battersea was established, upwards of 800,000 dogs have passed through the books, a few to be reclaimed or bought, the great majority to be put to death. A very large proportion of these have been veritable mongrels, not worth the value of their licences—diseased and maimed curs, or bitches in whelp, turned ruthlessly adrift to be consigned to the oblivion of the lethal chamber, where the thoroughbred seldom finds its way. And if as many as 500 undesirables are destroyed every week at one such institution, 'tis clear that the ill-bred mongrel must soon altogether disappear. But the chief factor in the general improvement of our canine population is due to the steadily growing care and pride which are bestowed upon the dog, and to the scientific skill with which he is being bred.

Admitting that the dogs seen at our best contemporary shows are superlative examples of scientific selection, one has yet to acknowledge that the process of breeding for show points has its disadvantages, and that, in the sporting and pastoral varieties more especially, utility is apt to be sacrificed to ornament and type, and stamina to fancy qualities not always relative to the animal's capacities as a worker. The standards of perfection and scales of points laid down by the specialist clubs are usually admirable guides to the uninitiated, but they are often unreasonably arbitrary in their insistence upon certain details of form—generally in the neighbourhood of the head—while they leave the qualities of type and character to look after themselves or to be totally ignored.

It is necessary to assure the beginner in breeding that points are essentially of far less moment than type and a good constitution. The one thing necessary in the cultivation of the dog is to bear in mind the purpose for which he is supposed to be employed, and to aim at adapting or conserving his physique to the best fulfilment of that purpose, remembering that the Greyhound has tucked-up loins to give elasticity and bend to the body in running, that a Terrier is kept small to enable him the better to enter an earth, that a Bulldog is massive and undershot for encounters in the bullring, that the Collie's ears are erected to assist him in hearing sounds from afar, as those of the Bloodhound are pendant, the more readily to detect sounds coming to him along the ground while his head is bent to the trail. Nature has been discriminate in her adaptations of animal forms; and the most perfect dog yet bred is the one which approaches nearest to Nature's wise intention.

The foregoing chapters have given abundant examples of how the various breeds of the dog have been acquired, manufactured, improved, resuscitated, and retained. Broadly speaking, two methods have been adopted: The method of introducing an outcross to impart new blood, new strength, new character; and the method of inbreeding to retain an approved type. An outcross is introduced when the breed operated upon is declining in stamina or is in danger of extinction, or when some new physical or mental quality is desired. New types and eccentricities are hardly wanted, however, and the extreme requirements of an outcross may nowadays be achieved by the simple process of selecting individuals from differing strains of the same breed, mating a bitch which lacks the required points with a dog in whose family they are prominently and consistently present.

Inbreeding is the reverse of outcrossing. It is the practice of mating animals closely related to each other, and it is, within limits, an entirely justifiable means of preserving and intensifying family characteristics. It is a law in zoology that an animal cannot transmit a quality which it does not itself innately possess, or which none of its progenitors has ever possessed. By mating a dog and a bitch of the same family, therefore, you concentrate and enhance the uniform inheritable qualities into one line instead of two, and you reduce the number of possibly heterogeneous ancestors by exactly a half right back to the very beginning. There is no surer way of maintaining uniformity of type, and an examination of the extended pedigree of almost any famous dog will show how commonly inbreeding is practised. Inbreeding is certainly advantageous when managed with judgment and discreet selection, but it has its disadvantages also, for it is to be remembered that faults and blemishes are inherited as well as merits, and that the faults have a way of asserting themselves with annoying persistency. Furthermore, breeding between animals closely allied in parentage is prone to lead to degeneracy, physical weakness, and mental stupidity, while impotence and sterility are frequent concomitants, and none but experienced breeders should attempt so hazardous an experiment. Observation has proved that the union of father with daughter and mother with son is preferable to an alliance between brother and sister. Perhaps the best union is that between cousins. For the preservation of general type, however, it ought to be sufficient to keep to one strain and to select from that strain members who, while exhibiting similar characteristics, are not actually too closely allied in consanguinity. To move perpetually from one strain to another is only to court an undesirable confusion of type.

In founding a kennel it is advisable to begin with the possession of a bitch. As a companion the female is to be preferred to the male; she is not less affectionate and faithful, and she is usually much cleaner in her habits in the house. If it is intended to breed by her, she should be very carefully chosen and proved to be free from any serious fault or predisposition to disease. Not only should her written pedigree be scrupulously scrutinised, but her own constitution and that of her parents on both sides should be minutely inquired into.

A bitch comes into season for breeding twice in a year; the first time when she is reaching maturity, usually at the age of from seven to ten months. Her condition will readily be discerned by the fact of an increased attentiveness of the opposite sex and the appearance of a mucous discharge from the vagina. She should then be carefully protected from the gallantry of suitors. Dogs kept in the near neighbourhood of a bitch on heat, who is not accessible to them, go off their feed and suffer in condition. With most breeds it is unwise to put a bitch to stud before she is eighteen months old, but Mr. Stubbs recommends that a Bull bitch should be allowed to breed at her first heat, while her body retains the flexibility of youth; and there is no doubt that with regard to the Bulldog great mortality occurs in attempting to breed from maiden bitches exceeding three years old. In almost all breeds it is the case that the first three litters are the best. It is accordingly important that a proper mating should be considered at the outset, and a prospective sire selected either through the medium of stud advertisements or by private arrangement with the owner of the desired dog. For the payment of the requisite stud fee, varying from a guinea to ten or fifteen pounds, the services of the best dogs of the particular breed can usually be secured. It is customary for the bitch to be the visitor, and it is well that her visit should extend to two or three days at the least. When possible a responsible person should accompany her.

If the stud dog is a frequenter of shows he can usually be depended upon to be in sound physical condition. No dog who is not so can be expected to win prizes. But it ought to be ascertained before hand that he is what is known as a good stock-getter. The fee is for his services, not for the result of them. Some owners of stud dogs will grant two services, and this is often desirable, especially in the case of a maiden bitch or of a stud dog that is over-wrought, as so many are. It is most important that both the mated animals should be free from worms and skin disorders. Fifty per cent. of the casualties among young puppies are due to one or other of the parents having been in an unhealthy condition when mated. A winter whelping is not advisable. It is best for puppies to be born in the spring or early summer, thus escaping the rigours of inclement weather.

During the period of gestation the breeding bitch should have ample but not violent exercise, with varied and wholesome food, including some preparation of bone meal; and at about the third week, whether she seems to require it or not, she should be treated for worms. At about the sixtieth day she will begin to be uneasy and restless. A mild purgative should be given; usually salad oil is enough, but if constipation is apparent castor oil may be necessary. On the sixty-second day the whelps may be expected, and everything ought to be in readiness for the event.

A coarsely constituted bitch may be trusted to look after herself on these occasions; no help is necessary, and one may come down in the morning to find her with her litter comfortably nestling at her side. But with the Toy breeds, and the breeds that have been reared in artificial conditions, difficult or protracted parturition is frequent, and human assistance ought to be at hand in case of need. The owner of a valuable Bull bitch, for example, would never think of leaving her to her own unaided devices. All undue interference, however, should be avoided, and it is absolutely necessary that the person attending her should be one with whom she is fondly familiar.

In anticipation of a possibly numerous litter, a foster-mother should be arranged for beforehand. Comfortable quarters should be prepared in a quiet part of the house or kennels, warm, and free from draughts. Clean bedding of wheaten straw should be provided, but the bitch should be allowed to make her nest in her own instinctive fashion. Let her have easy access to drinking water. She will probable refuse food for a few hours before her time, but a little concentrated nourishment, such as Brand's Essence or a drink of warm milk, should be offered to her. In further preparation for the confinement a basin of water containing antiseptic for washing in, towels, warm milk, a flask of brandy, a bottle of ergotine, and a pair of scissors are commodities which may all be required in emergency. The ergot, which must be used with extreme caution and only when the labour pains have commenced, is invaluable when parturition is protracted, and there is difficult straining without result. Its effect is to contract the womb and expel the contents. But when the puppies are expelled with ease it is superfluous. For a bitch of 10 lb. in weight ten drops of the extract of ergot in a teaspoonful of water should be ample, given by the mouth. The scissors are for severing the umbilical cord if the mother should fail to do it in her own natural way. Sometimes a puppy may be enclosed within a membrane which the dam cannot readily open with tongue and teeth. If help is necessary it should be given tenderly and with clean fingers. Occasionally a puppy may seem to be inert and lifeless, and after repeatedly licking it the bitch may relinquish all effort at restoration and turn her attention to another that is being born. In such a circumstance the rejected little one may be discreetly removed, and a drop of brandy on the point of the finger smeared upon its tongue may revive animation, or it may be plunged up to the neck in warm water. The object should be to keep it warm and to make it breathe. When the puppies are all born, their dam may be given a drink of warm milk and then left alone to their toilet and to suckle them. If any should be dead, these ought to be disposed of. Curiosity in regard to the others should be temporarily repressed, and inspection of them delayed until a more fitting opportunity. If any are then seen to be malformed or to have cleft palates, these had better be removed and mercifully destroyed.

It is the experience of many observers that the first whelps born in a litter are the strongest, largest, and healthiest. If the litter is a large one, the last born may be noticeably puny, and this disparity in size may continue to maturity. The wise breeder will decide for himself how many whelps should be left to the care of their dam. The number should be relative to her health and constitution, and in any case it is well not to give her so many that they will be a drain upon her. Those breeds of dogs that have been most highly developed by man and that appear to have the greatest amount of brain and intelligence are generally the most prolific as to the number of puppies they produce. St. Bernards, Pointers, Setters are notable for the usual strength of their families. St. Bernards have been known to produce as many as eighteen whelps at a birth, and it is no uncommon thing for them to produce from nine to twelve. A Pointer of Mr. Barclay Field's produced fifteen, and it is well known that Mr. Statter's Setter Phoebe produced twenty-one at a birth. Phoebe reared ten of these herself, and almost every one of the family became celebrated. It would be straining the natural possibilities of any bitch to expect her to bring up eighteen puppies healthily. Half that number would tax her natural resources to the extreme. But Nature is extraordinarily adaptive in tempering the wind to the shorn lamb, and a dam who gives birth to a numerous litter ought not to have her family unduly reduced. It was good policy to allow Phoebe to have the rearing of as many as ten out of her twenty-one. A bitch having twelve will bring up nine very well, one having nine will rear seven without help, and a bitch having seven will bring up five better than four.

Breeders of Toy-dogs often rear the overplus offspring by hand, with the help of a Maw and Thompson feeding-bottle, peptonised milk, and one or more of the various advertised infants' foods or orphan puppy foods. Others prefer to engage or prepare in advance a foster-mother. The foster-mother need not be of the same breed, but she should be approximately of similar size, and her own family ought to be of the same age as the one of which she is to take additional charge. One can usually be secured through advertisement in the canine press. Some owners do not object to taking one from a dogs' home, which is an easy method, in consideration of the circumstance that by far the larger number of "lost" dogs are bitches sent adrift because they are in whelp. The chief risk in this course is that the unknown foster-mother may be diseased or verminous or have contracted the seeds of distemper, or her milk may be populated with embryo worms. These are dangers to guard against. A cat makes an excellent foster-mother for Toy-dog puppies.

Worms ought not to be a necessary accompaniment of puppyhood, and if the sire and dam are properly attended to in advance they need not be. The writer has attended at the birth of puppies, not one of whom has shown the remotest sign of having a worm, and the puppies have almost galloped into healthy, happy maturity, protected from all the usual canine ailments by constitutions impervious to disease. He has seen others almost eaten away by worms. Great writhing knots of them have been ejected; they have been vomited; they have wriggled out of the nostrils; they have perforated the stomach and wrought such damage that most of the puppies succumbed, and those that survived were permanently deficient in stamina and liable to go wrong on the least provocating. The puppy that is free from worms starts life with a great advantage.



CHAPTER LI

SOME COMMON AILMENTS OF THE DOG AND THEIR TREATMENT

The experienced dog-owner has long ago realised that cleanliness, wholesome food, judicious exercise and a dry, comfortable and well-ventilated kennel are the surest safeguards of health, and that attention to these necessaries saves him an infinitude of trouble and anxiety by protecting his dogs from disease. On the first appearance of illness in his kennels the wise dog-owner at once calls in the skill of a good veterinary surgeon, but there are some of the minor ailments which he can deal with himself whilst he ought at least to be able to recognise the first symptoms of the dreaded Distemper and give first aid until the vet. arrives to apply his remedies and give professional advice.

DISTEMPER.

Although more than one hundred years have elapsed since this was first imported to this country from France, a great amount of misunderstanding still prevails among a large section of dog-breeders regarding its true nature and origin. The fact is, the disease came to us with a bad name, for the French themselves deemed it incurable. In this country the old-fashioned plan of treatment was wont to be the usual rough remedies—emetics, purgatives, the seton, and the lancet. Failing in this, specifics of all sorts were eagerly sought for and tried, and are unfortunately still believed in to a very great extent.

Distemper has a certain course to run, and in this disease Nature seems to attempt the elimination of the poison through the secretions thrown out by the naso-pharyngeal mucous membrane.

Our chief difficulty in the treatment of distemper lies in the complications thereof. We may, and often do, have the organs of respiration attacked; we have sometimes congestion of the liver, or mucous inflammation of the bile ducts, or some lesion of the brain or nervous structures, combined with epilepsy, convulsions, or chorea. Distemper is also often complicated with severe disease of the bowels, and at times with an affection of the eyes.

Causes—Whether it be that the distemper virus, the poison seedling of the disease, really originates in the kennel, or is the result of contact of one dog with another, or whether the poison floats to the kennel on the wings of the wind, or is carried there on a shoe or the point of a walking-stick, the following facts ought to be borne in mind: (1) Anything that debilitates the body or weakens the nervous system paves the way for the distemper poison; (2) the healthier the dog the more power does he possess to resist contagion; (3) when the disease is epizootic, it can often be kept at bay by proper attention to diet and exercise, frequent change of kennel straw, and perfect cleanliness; (4) the predisposing causes which have come more immediately under my notice are debility, cold, damp, starvation, filthy kennels, unwholesome food, impure air, and grief.

The Age at which Dogs take Distemper—They may take distemper at any age; the most common time of life is from the fifth till the eleventh or twelfth month.

Symptoms—There is, first and foremost, a period of latency or of incubation, in which there is more or less of dullness and loss of appetite, and this glides gradually into a state of feverishness. The fever may be ushered in with chills and shivering. The nose now becomes hot and dry, the dog is restless and thirsty, and the conjunctivae of the eyes will be found to be considerably injected. Sometimes the bowels are at first constipated, but they are more usually irregular. Sneezing will also be frequent, and in some cases cough, dry and husky at first. The temperature should be taken, and if there is a rise of two or three degrees the case should be treated as distemper, and not as a common cold.

At the commencement there is but little exudation from the eyes and nose, but as the disease advances this symptom will become more marked, being clear at first. So, too, will another symptom which is partially diagnostic of the malady, namely, increased heat of body combined with a rapid falling off in flesh, sometimes, indeed, proceeding quickly on to positive emaciation.

As the disease creeps downwards and inwards along the air-passages, the chest gets more and more affected, the discharge of mucus and pus from the nostrils more abundant, and the cough loses its dry character, becoming moist. The discharge from the eyes is simply mucus and pus, but if not constantly dried away will gum the inflamed lids together, that from the nostrils is not only purulent, but often mixed with dark blood. The appetite is now clean gone, and there is often vomiting and occasional attacks of diarrhoea.

Now in mild cases we may look for some abatement of the symptoms about the fourteenth day. The fever gets less, inflammation decreases in the mucous passages, and appetite is restored as one of the first signs of returning health. More often, however, the disease becomes complicated.

Diagnosis—The diagnostic symptoms are the severe catarrh, combined not only with fever, but speedy emaciation.

Pneumonia, as we might easily imagine, is a very likely complication, and a very dangerous one. There is great distress in breathing, the animal panting rapidly. The countenance is anxious, the pulse small and frequent, and the extremities cold. The animal would fain sit up on his haunches, or even seek to get out into the fresh air, but sickness, weakness, and prostration often forbid his movements. If the ear or stethoscope be applied to the chest, the characteristic signs of pneumonia will be heard; these are sounds of moist crepitations, etc.

Bronchitis is probably the most common complication; in fact, it is always present, except in very mild cases. The cough becomes more severe, and often comes on in tearing paroxysms, causing sickness and vomiting. The breathing is short and frequent, the mouth hot and filled with viscid saliva, while very often the bowels are constipated. If the liver becomes involved, we shall very soon have the jaundiced eye and the yellow skin. Diarrhoea is another very common complication. We have frequent purging and, maybe, sickness and vomiting. Fits of a convulsive character are frequent concomitants of distemper. Epilepsy is sometimes seen, owing, no doubt, to degeneration of the nerve centres caused by blood-poisoning. There are many other complications, and skin complaints are common after it.

Treatment—This consists firstly in doing all in our power to guide the specific catarrhal fever to a safe termination; and, secondly, in watching for and combating complications. Whenever we see a young dog ailing, losing appetite, exhibiting catarrhal symptoms, and getting thin, with a rise in temperature, we should not lose an hour. If he be an indoor dog, find him a good bed in a clean, well-ventilated apartment, free from lumber and free from dirt. If it be summer, have all the windows out or opened; if winter, a little fire will be necessary, but have half the window opened at the same time; only take precautions against his lying in a draught. Fresh air in cases of distemper, and, indeed, in fevers of all kinds, cannot be too highly extolled.

The more rest the dog has the better; he must be kept free from excitement, and care must be taken to guard him against cold and wet when he goes out of doors to obey the calls of Nature. The most perfect cleanliness must be enjoined, and disinfectants used, such as permanganate of potash, carbolic acid, Pearson's, or Izal. If the sick dog, on the other hand, be one of a kennel of dogs, then quarantine must be adopted. The hospital should be quite removed from the vicinity of all other dogs, and as soon as the animal is taken from the kennel the latter should be thoroughly cleansed and disinfected, and the other dogs kept warm and dry, well fed, and moderately exercised.

Food and Drink—For the first three or four days let the food be light and easily digested. In order to induce the animal to take it, it should be as palatable as possible. For small dogs you cannot have anything better than milk porridge. [1] At all events, the dog must, if possible, be induced to eat; he must not be "horned" unless there be great emaciation; he must not over-eat, but what he gets must be good. As to drink, dogs usually prefer clean cold water, and we cannot do harm by mixing therewith a little plain nitre.

[1] Oatmeal porridge made with milk instead of water.

Medicine—Begin by giving a simple dose of castor oil, just enough and no more than will clear out the bowels by one or two motions. Drastic purgatives, and medicines such as mercury, jalap, aloes, and podophyllyn, cannot be too highly condemned. For very small Toy dogs, such as Italian Greyhounds, Yorkshire Terriers, etc., I should not recommend even oil itself, but manna—one drachm to two drachms dissolved in milk. By simply getting the bowels to act once or twice, we shall have done enough for the first day, and have only to make the dog comfortable for the night.

On the next day begin with a mixture such as the following: Solution of acetate of ammonia, 30 drops to 120; sweet spirits of nitre, 15 drops to 60; salicylate of soda, 2 grains to 10. Thrice daily in a little camphor water.

If the cough be very troublesome and the fever does not run very high, the following may be substituted for this on the second or third day: Syrup of squills, 10 drops to 60; tincture of henbane, 10 drops to 60; sweet spirits of nitre, 10 drops to 60, in camphor water.

A few drops of dilute hydrochloric acid should be added to the dog's drink, and two teaspoonfuls (to a quart of water) of the chlorate of potash. This makes an excellent fever drink, especially if the dog can be got to take decoction of barley—barley-water—instead of plain cold water, best made of Keen and Robinson's patent barley.

If there be persistent sickness and vomiting, the medicine must be stopped for a time. Small boluses of ice frequently administered will do much good, and doses of dilute prussic acid, from one to four drops in a little water, will generally arrest the vomiting.

If constipation be present, we must use no rough remedies to get rid of it. A little raw meat cut into small pieces—minced, in fact—or a small portion of raw liver, may be given if there be little fever; if there be fever, we are to trust for a time to injections of plain soap-and-water. Diarrhoea, although often a troublesome symptom, is, it must be remembered, a salutary one. Unless, therefore, it becomes excessive, do not interfere; if it does, give the simple chalk mixture three times a day, but no longer than is needful.

The discharge from the mouth and nose is to be wiped away with a soft rag—or, better still, some tow, which is afterwards to be burned—wetted with a weak solution of carbolic. The forehead, eyes, and nose may be fomented two or three times a day with moderately hot water with great advantage.

It is not judicious to wet a long-haired dog much, but a short-haired one may have the chest and throat well fomented several times a day, and well rubbed dry afterwards. Heat applied to the chests of long-haired dogs by means of a flat iron will also effect good.

The following is an excellent tonic: Sulphate of quinine, 1/8 to 3 grains; powdered rhubarb, 2 to 10 grains; extract of taraxacum, 3 to 20 grains; make a bolus. Thrice daily.

During convalescence good food, Virol, Spratts' invalid food and invalid biscuit, moderate exercise, fresh air, and protection from cold. These, with an occasional mild dose of castor oil or rhubarb, are to be our sheet-anchors. I find no better tonic than the tablets of Phosferine. One quarter of a tablet thrice daily, rolled in tissue paper, for a Toy dog, up to two tablets for a dog of Mastiff size.

BRONCHITIS.

Dogs that have been exposed to wet, or that have been put to lie in a damp or draughty kennel with insufficient food, are not less liable than their masters to catch a severe cold, which, if not promptly attended to, may extend downward to the lining membranes of bronchi or lungs. In such cases there is always symptoms more or less of fever, with fits of shivering and thirst, accompanied with dullness, a tired appearance and loss of appetite. The breath is short, inspirations painful, and there is a rattling of mucus in chest or throat. The most prominent symptom, perhaps, is the frequent cough. It is at first dry, ringing, and evidently painful; in a few days, however, or sooner, it softens, and there is a discharge of frothy mucus with it, and, in the latter stages, of pus and ropy mucus.

Treatment—Keep the patient in a comfortable, well-ventilated apartment, with free access in and out if the weather be dry. Let the bowels be freely acted upon to begin with, but no weakening discharge from the bowels must be kept up. After the bowels have been moved we should commence the exhibition of small doses of tartar emetic with squills and opium thrice a day. If the cough is very troublesome, give this mixture: Tincture of squills, 5 drops to 30; paregoric, 10 drops to 60; tartar emetic, one-sixteenth of a grain to 1 grain; syrup and water a sufficiency. Thrice daily.

We may give a full dose of opium every night. In mild cases carbonate of ammonia may be tried; it often does good, the dose being from two grains to ten in camphor water, or even plain water.

The chronic form of bronchitis will always yield, if the dog is young, to careful feeding, moderate exercise, and the exhibition of cod-liver oil with a mild iron tonic. The exercise, however, must be moderate, and the dog kept from the water. A few drops to a teaspoonful of paregoric, given at night, will do good, and the bowels should be kept regular, and a simple laxative pill given now and then.

DIARRHOEA,

or looseness of the bowels, or purging, is a very common disease among dogs of all ages and breeds. It is, nevertheless, more common among puppies about three or four months old, and among dogs who have reached the age of from seven to ten years. It is often symptomatic of other ailments.

Causes—Very numerous. In weakly dogs exposure alone will produce it. The weather, too, has no doubt much to do with the production of diarrhoea. In most kennels it is more common in the months of July and August, although it often comes on in the very dead of winter. Puppies, if overfed, will often be seized with this troublesome complaint. A healthy puppy hardly ever knows when it has had enough, and it will, moreover, stuff itself with all sorts of garbage; acidity of the stomach follows, with vomiting of the ingesta, and diarrhoea succeeds, brought on by the acrid condition of the chyme, which finds its way into the duodenum. This stuff would in itself act as a purgative, but it does more, it abnormally excites the secretions of the whole alimentary canal, and a sort of sub-acute mucous inflammation is set up. The liver; too, becomes mixed up with the mischief, throws out a superabundance of bile, and thus aids in keeping up the diarrhoea.

Among other causes, we find the eating of indigestible food, drinking foul or tainted water, too much green food, raw paunches, foul kennels, and damp, draughty kennels.

Symptoms—The purging is, of course, the principal symptom, and the stools are either quite liquid or semi-fluid, bilious-looking, dirty-brown or clay-coloured, or mixed with slimy mucus. In some cases they resemble dirty water. Sometimes, as already said, a little blood will be found in the dejection, owing to congestion of the mucous membrane from liver obstruction. In case there be blood in the stools, a careful examination is always necessary in order to ascertain the real state of the patient. Blood, it must be remembered, might come from piles or polypi, or it might be dysenteric, and proceed from ulceration of the rectum and colon. In the simplest form of diarrhoea, unless the disease continues for a long time, there will not be much wasting, and the appetite will generally remain good but capricious.

In bilious diarrhoea, with large brown fluid stools and complete loss of appetite, there is much thirst, and in a few days the dog gets rather thin, although nothing like so rapidly as in the emaciation of distemper.

The Treatment will, it need hardly be said, depend upon the cause, but as it is generally caused by the presence in the intestine of some irritating matter, we can hardly err by administering a small dose of castor oil, combining with it, if there be much pain—which you can tell by the animal's countenance—from 5 to 20 or 30 drops of laudanum, or of the solution of the muriate of morphia. This in itself will often suffice to cut short an attack. The oil is preferable to rhubarb, but the latter may be tried—the simple, not the compound powder—dose from 10 grains to 2 drachms in bolus.

It the diarrhoea should continue next day, proceed cautiously—remember there is no great hurry, and a sudden check to diarrhoea is at times dangerous—to administer dog doses of the aromatic chalk and opium powder, or give the following medicine three times a day: Compound powdered catechu, 1 grain to 10; powdered chalk with opium, 3 grains to 30. Mix. If the diarrhoea still continues, good may accrue from a trial of the following mixture: Laudanum, 5 to 30 drops; dilute sulphuric acid, 2 to 15 drops; in camphor water.

This after every liquid motion, or, if the motions may not be observed, three times a day. If blood should appear in the stools give the following: Kino powder, 1 to 10 grains; powder ipecac., 1/4 to 3 grains; powdered opium 1/2 to 2 grains. This may be made into a bolus with any simple extract, and given three times a day.

The food is of importance. The diet should be changed; the food requires to be of a non-stimulating kind, no meat being allowed, but milk and bread, sago, or arrowroot or rice, etc. The drink either pure water, with a pinch or two of chlorate and nitrate of potash in it, or patent barley-water if the dog will take it.

The bed must be warm and clean, and free from draughts, and, in all cases of diarrhoea, one cannot be too particular with the cleanliness and disinfection of the kennels.

CONSTIPATION,

more commonly called costiveness, is also a very common complaint. It often occurs in the progress of other diseases, but is just as often a separate ailment.

Perhaps no complaint to which our canine friends are liable is less understood by the non-professional dog doctor and by dog owners themselves. Often caused by weakness in the coats of the intestine. The exhibition of purgatives can only have a temporary effect in relieving the symptoms, and is certain to be followed by reaction, and consequently by further debility. Want of exercise and bath common cause.

Youatt was never more correct in his life than when he said: "Many dogs have a dry constipated habit, often greatly increased by the bones on which they are fed. This favours the disposition to mange, etc. It produces indigestion, encourages worms, blackens the teeth, and causes fetid breath."

Symptoms—The stools are hard, usually in large round balls, and defecation is accomplished with great difficulty, the animal often having to try several times before he succeeds in effecting the act, and this only after the most acute suffering. The faeces are generally covered with white mucus, showing the heat and semi-dry condition of the gut. The stool is sometimes so dry as to fall to pieces like so much oatmeal.

There is generally also a deficiency of bile in the motions, and, in addition to simple costiveness, we have more or less loss of appetite, with a too pale tongue, dullness, and sleepiness, with slight redness of the conjunctiva. Sometimes constipation alternates with diarrhoea, the food being improperly commingled with the gastric and other juices, ferments, spoils, and becomes, instead of healthy blood-producing chyme, an irritant purgative.

Treatment—Hygienic treatment more than medicinal. Mild doses of castor oil, compound rhubarb pill, or olive oil, may at first be necessary. Sometimes an enema will be required if the medicine will not act.

Plenty of exercise and a swim daily (with a good run after the swim), or instead of the swim a bucket bath—water thrown over the dog.

Give oatmeal, rather than flour or fine bread, as the staple of his diet, but a goodly allowance of meat is to be given as well, with cabbage or boiled liver, or even a portion of raw liver. Fresh air and exercise in the fields. You may give a bolus before dinner, such as the following: Compound rhubarb pill, 1 to 5 grains; quinine, 1/8 to 2 grains; extract of taraxacum, 2 to 10 grains. Mix.

FITS.

Whatever be the cause, they are very alarming. In puppies they are called Convulsions, and resemble epileptic fits. Keep the dog very quiet, but use little force, simply enough to keep him from hurting himself. Keep out of the sun, or in a darkened room. When he can swallow give from 2 to 20 grains (according to size) of bromide of potassium in a little camphor water thrice daily for a few days. Only milk food. Keep quiet.

SKIN DISEASES.

In the whole range of dog ailments included in the term canine pathology there are none more bothersome to treat successfully nor more difficult to diagnose than those of the skin. There are none either that afford the quack or patent-nostrum monger a larger field for the practice of his fiendish gifts. If I were to be asked the questions, "Why do dogs suffer so much from skin complaints?" and "Why does it appear to be so difficult to treat them?" I should answer the first thus: Through the neglect of their owners, from want of cleanliness, from injudicious feeding, from bad kennelling, and from permitting their favourites such free intercourse with other members of the canine fraternity. Overcrowding is another and distinct source of skin troubles.

My answer to the second question is that the layman too often treats the trouble in the skin as if it were the disease itself, whereas it is, generally, merely a symptom thereof. Examples: To plaster medicated oils or ointments all over the skin of a dog suffering from constitutional eczema is about as sensible as would be the painting white of the yellow skin in jaundice in order to cure the disordered liver.

But even those contagious diseases that are caused by skin germs or animalcules will not be wholly cured by any applications whatever. Constitutional remedies should go hand in hand with these. And, indeed, so great is the defensive power of strong, pure blood, rich in its white corpuscles or leucocytes, that I believe I could cure even the worst forms of mange by internal remedies, good food, and tonics, etc., without the aid of any dressing whatever except pure cold water.

In treating of skin diseases it is usual to divide them into three sections: (1) The non-contagious, (2) the contagious, and (3) ailments caused by external parasites.

(1) The Non-Contagious.—(a) Erythema.—This is a redness, with slight inflammation of the skin, the deeper tissues underneath not being involved. Examples—That seen between the wrinkles of well-bred Pugs, Mastiffs, or Bulldogs, or inside the thighs of Greyhounds, etc. If the skin breaks there may be discharges of pus, and if the case is not cured the skin may thicken and crack, and the dog make matters worse with his tongue.

Treatment—Review and correct the methods of feeding. A dog should be neither too gross nor too lean. Exercise, perfect cleanliness, the early morning sluice-down with cold water, and a quassia tonic. He may need a laxative as well.

Locally—Dusting with oxide of zinc or the violet powder of the nurseries, a lotion of lead, or arnica. Fomentation, followed by cold water, and, when dry, dusting as above. A weak solution of boracic acid (any chemist) will sometimes do good.

(b) Prurigo.—Itching all over, with or without scurf. Sometimes thickening.

Treatment—Regulation of diet, green vegetables, fruit if he will take it, brushing and grooming, but never roughly. Try for worms and for fleas.

(c) Eczema.—The name is not a happy one as applied to the usual itching skin disease of dogs. Eczema proper is an eruption in which the formed matter dries off into scales or scabs, and dog eczema, so-called, is as often as not a species of lichen. Then, of course, it is often accompanied with vermin, nearly always with dirt, and it is irritated out of all character by the biting and scratching of the dog himself.

Treatment—Must be both constitutional and local. Attend to the organs of digestion. Give a moderate dose of opening medicine, to clear away offending matter. This simple aperient may be repeated occasionally, say once a week, and if diarrhoea be present it may be checked by the addition of a little morphia or dilute sulphuric acid. Cream of tartar with sulphur is an excellent derivative, being both diuretic and diaphoretic, but it must not be given in doses large enough to purge. At the same time we may give thrice daily a tonic pill like the following:—

Sulphate of quinine, 1/8 to 3 grains; sulphate of iron, 1/2 grain to 5 grains; extract of hyoscyamus, 1/8 to 3 grains; extract of taraxacum and glycerine enough to make a pill.

Locally—Perfect cleanliness. Cooling lotions patted on to the sore places. Spratts' Cure. (N.B.—I know what every remedy contains, or I should not recommend it.) Benzoated zinc ointment after the lotion has dried in. Wash carefully once a week, using the ointment when skin is dry, or the lotion to allay irritation.

(2) Contagious Skin Diseases.—These are usually called mange proper and follicular mange, or scabies. I want to say a word on the latter first. It depends upon a microscopic animalcule called the Acarus folliculorum. The trouble begins by the formation of patches, from which the hair falls off, and on which may be noticed a few pimples. Scabs form, the patches extend, or come out on other parts of the body, head, legs, belly, or sides. Skin becomes red in white-haired dogs. Odour of this trouble very offensive. More pain than itching seems to be the symptomatic rule. Whole body may become affected.

Treatment—Dress the affected parts twice a week with the following:—

Creosote, 2 drachms; linseed oil, 7 ounces; solution of potash, 1 ounce. First mix the creosote and oil, then add the solution and shake. Better to shave the hair off around the patches. Kennels must be kept clean with garden soap and hot water, and all bedding burned after use. From three months to six will be needed to cure bad cases.

Mange Proper is also caused by a parasite or acarus, called the Sarcops canus. Unlike eczema, this mange is spread from dog to dog by touch or intercommunication, just as one person catches the itch from another.

The Symptoms—At first these may escape attention, but there are vesicles which the dog scratches and breaks, and thus the disease spreads. The hair gets matted and falls off. Regions of the body most commonly affected, head, chest, back, rump, and extremities. There may not be much constitutional disturbance from the actual injury to the skin, but from his suffering so much from the irritation and the want of rest the health suffers.

Treatment—Avoid the use of so-called disinfectants. Most of those sold as such are simply deodorisers, and, applied to the skin, are useless. Nor are they of much use in cleaning the kennels. Nothing suits better for woodwork than, first, carbolic wash, and then a thorough scrubbing with hot water and garden soap.

Some ointment must be used to the skin, and as I am writing for laymen only I feel chary in recommending such strong ones as the green iodide of mercury. If you do use it mix it with twice its bulk of the compound sulphur ointment. Do over only a part or two at a time. The dog to be washed after three days. But the compound sulphur ointment itself is a splendid application, and it is not dangerous.

(3) Skin Complaints from Vermin.—The treatment is obvious—get rid of the cause.

As their diagnosis is so difficult, whenever the dog-owner is in doubt, make certain by treating the dog not only by local applications but constitutionally as well. In addition to good diet, perfect cleanliness of coat, kennel, and all surroundings, and the application of the ointment or oil, let the dog have all the fresh air possible, and exercise, but never over-exciting or too fatiguing. Then a course of arsenic seldom fails to do good.

I do not believe in beginning the exhibition of arsenic too soon. I prefer paying my first attentions to the digestive organs and state of the bowels. The form of exhibition which I have found suit as well as any is the tasteless Liquor arsenicalis. It is easily administered. It ought to be given mixed with the food, as it ought to enter the blood with the chyle from the diet. It ought, day by day, to be gradually, not hurriedly, increased. Symptoms of loathing of food and redness of conjunctiva call for the cessation of its use for two or three days at least, when it is to be recommended at the same size of dose given when left off.

There are two things which assist the arsenic, at least to go well with it; they are, iron in some form and Virol. The latter will be needed when there is much loss of flesh. A simple pill of sulphate of iron and extract of liquorice may be used. Dose of Liquor arsenicalis from 1 to 6 drops ter die to commence with, gradually increased to 5 to 20 drops.

Dandruff.—A scaly or scurfy condition of the skin, with more or less of irritation. It is really a shedding of the scaly epidermis brought on by injudicious feeding or want of exercise as a primary cause. The dog, in cases of this kind, needs cooling medicines, such as small doses of the nitrate and chlorates of potash, perhaps less food. Bowels to be seen to by giving plenty of green food, with a morsel of sheep's melt or raw liver occasionally. Wash about once in three weeks, a very little borax in the last water, say a drachm to a gallon. Use mild soap. Never use a very hard brush or sharp comb. Tar soap (Wright's) may be tried.

PARASITES—INTERNAL.

WORMS.

We have, roughly speaking, two kinds of worms to treat in the dog: (1) the round, and (2) the tape.

(1) Round-worms—They are in shape and size not unlike the garden worm, but harder, pale, and pointed.

Symptoms—Sometimes these are alarming, for the worm itself is occasionally seized with the mania for foreign travel, and finds its way into the throat or nostrils, causing the dog to become perfectly furious, and inducing such pain and agony that it may seem charity to end its life. The worms may also crawl into the stomach, and give rise to great irritation, but are usually dislodged therefrom by the violence accompanying the act of vomiting.

Their usual habitat, however, is the small intestines, where they occasion great distress to their host. The appetite is always depraved and voracious. At times there is colic, with sickness and perhaps vomiting, and the bowels are alternately constipated or loose. The coat is harsh and staring, there usually is short, dry cough from reflex irritation of the bronchial mucous membrane, a bad-smelling breath and emaciation or at least considerable poverty of flesh.

The disease is most common in puppies and in young dogs. The appearance of the ascaris in the dog's stools is, of course, the diagnostic symptom.

Treatment—I have cured many cases with santonin and areca-nut powder (betel-nut), dose 10 grains to 2 drachms; or turpentine, dose from 10 drops to 1-1/2 drachms, beaten up with yolk of egg.

But areca-nut does better for tape-worm, so we cannot do better than trust to pure santonin. The dose is from 1 grain for a Toy up to 6 grains for a Mastiff. Mix it with a little butter, and stick it well back in the roof of the dog's mouth. He must have fasted previously for twelve hours, and had a dose of castor oil the day before. In four or five hours after he has swallowed the santonin, let him have a dose of either olive oil or decoction of aloes. Dose, 2 drachms to 2 ounces or more. Repeat the treatment in five days. Spratts' cure may be safely depended on for worms. [1]

[1] Many dog owners swear by the preparation called Ruby, which can be recommended as a cure for worms.—Ed.

The perfect cleanliness of the kennel is of paramount importance.

The animal's general health requires looking after, and he may be brought once more into good condition by proper food and a course of vegetable tonics. If wanted in show condition we have Plasmon to fall back upon, and Burroughs and Wellcome's extract of malt.

There is a round-worm which at times infests the dog's bladder, and may cause occlusion of the urethra; a whip-worm inhabiting the caecum; another may occupy a position in the mucous membrane of the stomach; some infest the blood, and others the eye.

(2) Tape-worms—There are several kinds, but the treatment is the same in all cases. The commonest in the country is the Cucumerine.

This is a tape-worm of about fifteen inches in average length, although I have taken them from Newfoundland pups fully thirty inches long. It is a semi-transparent entozoon; each segment is long compared to its breadth, and narrowed at both ends. Each joint has, when detached, an independent sexual existence.

The dog often becomes infested with this parasite from eating sheeps' brains, and dogs thus afflicted and allowed to roam at pleasure over fields and hills where sheep are fed sow the seeds of gid in our flocks to any extent. We know too well the great use of Collie dogs to the shepherd or grazier to advise that dogs should not be employed as assistants, but surely it would be to their owners' advantage to see that they were kept in a state of health and cleanliness.

Treatment—We ought to endeavour to prevent as well as to cure. We should never allow our dogs to eat the entrails of hares or rabbits. Never allow them to be fed on raw sheep's intestines, nor the brains of sheep. Never permit them to lounge around butchers' shops, nor eat offal of any kind. Let their food be well cooked, and their skins and kennels kept scrupulously clean. Dogs that are used for sheep and cattle ought, twice a year at least, to go under treatment for the expulsion of worms, whether they are infested or not; an anthelmintic would make sure, and could hardly hurt them.

For the expulsion of tape-worms we depend mostly on areca-nut. In order that the tape-worm should receive the full benefit of the remedy, we order a dose of castor oil the day before in the morning, and recommend no food to be given that day except beef-tea or mutton broth. The bowels are thus empty next morning, so that the parasite cannot shelter itself anywhere, and is therefore sure to be acted on.

Infusion of cusco is sometimes used as an anthelmintic, so is wormwood, and the liquid extract of male fern, and in America spigelia root and pumpkin seeds.

The best tonic to give in cases of worms is the extract of quassia.

Extract of quassia, 1 to 10 grains; extract of hyoscyamus, 1/2 to 5 grains. To make one pill. Thrice daily.

PARASITES.—EXTERNAL.

FLEAS.

Washing with Spratts' medicated soap. Extra clean kennels. Dusting with Keating, and afterwards washing. This may not kill the fleas, but it drives them off. Take the dog on the grass while dusting, and begin along the spine. Never do it in the house.

TICKS.

I have noticed these disagreeable bloodsuckers only on the heads and bodies of sporting or Collie dogs, who had been boring for some time through coverts and thickets. They soon make themselves visible, as the body swells up with the blood they suck until they resemble small soft warts about as big as a pea. They belong to the natural family, Ixodiadae.

Treatment—If not very numerous they should be cut off, and the part touched with a little turps. The sulphuret of calcium will also kill them, so will the more dangerous white precipitate, or even a strong solution of carbolic acid, which must be used sparingly, however.

LICE.

The lice are hatched from nits, which we find clinging in rows, and very tenaciously too, to the hairs. The insects themselves are more difficult to find, but they are on puppies sometimes in thousands. To destroy them I have tried several plans. Oil is very effectual, and has safety to recommend it. Common sweet oil is as good a cure as any, and you may add a little oil of anise and some sublimed sulphur, which will increase the effect. Quassia water may be used to damp the coat. The matted portions of a long-haired dog's coat must be cut off with scissors, for there the lice often lurk. The oil dressing will not kill the nits, so that vinegar must be used. After a few days the dressing must be repeated, and so on three or four times. To do any good, the whole of the dog's coat must be drenched in oil, and the dog washed with good dog soap and warm water twelve hours afterwards.



CHAPTER LII

THE DOG AND THE LAW

PRIVILEGES OF FIRST BITE

It is popularly, but rather erroneously, supposed that every dog is entitled to one bite. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that every dog may with impunity have one snap or one intended bite, but only dogs of hitherto irreproachable character are permitted the honour of a genuine tasteful bite.

Once a dog, however, has displayed dangerous propensities, even though he has never had the satisfaction of effecting an actual bite, and once his owner or the person who harbours him becomes aware of these evil inclinations (scienter) either of his own knowledge or by notice, the Law looks upon such dog as a dangerous beast which the owner keeps at his peril.

The onus of proof is on the victim to show that the owner had previous knowledge of the animal's ferocity, though in reality very little evidence of scienter is as a rule required, and notice need not necessarily be given directly to the owner, but to any person who has charge of the dog.

The person attacked has yet another remedy. He can, if he is able, kill the dog before it can bite him, but he is not justified in shooting the animal as it runs away, even after being bitten.

By 28 and 29 Vict., c. 60, the owner of a dog which attacks sheep or cattle—and cattle includes horses—is responsible for all damage, and there is no necessity to prove previous evil propensities. This Act is wholly repealed by the Act called the Dogs' Act, 1906, which came into force on January 1st, 1907, but the new Act re-enacts the section having reference to damage to cattle, and says that in such cases it is not necessary for the persons claiming damages to show a previous mischievous propensity in the dog or the owner's knowledge of such previous propensity or to show that the injury was attributable to neglect on the part of the owner; the word "cattle" includes horses, asses, sheep, goats, and swine.

The Law looks upon fighting between dogs as a natural and necessary incident in the career of every member of the canine race, and gives no redress to the owner of the vanquished animal, provided the fight was a fair one, and the contestants appear to consider it so. The owner, however, of a peaceably disposed dog which is attacked and injured, or killed, by one savage and unrestrained, has a right of action against the owner of the latter. The owner of the peaceably disposed animal may justifiably kill the savage brute in order to save his dog, but he must run the risk of being able to prove that this was the only means of putting a stop to the fight.

LICENCES

Every dog owner must annually take out a licence for each dog he keeps. The licence, which is obtainable at all post-offices at the cost of 7s. 6d., is dated to run from the hour it is taken out until the following 31st December. The person in whose custody or upon whose premises the dog is found will be deemed its owner until proved otherwise.

The owners of certain dogs for certain purposes are, however, exempted from taking out licences, viz.: (1) Dogs under the age of six months; (2) hounds under twelve months old neither used nor hunted with the pack, provided that the Master has taken out proper licences for all hounds entered in the pack; (3) one dog kept and used by a blind person solely for his or her guidance; (4) dogs kept and used solely for the purpose of tending sheep or cattle or in the exercise of the occupation or calling of a shepherd.

MUZZLING REGULATIONS

Under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts, 1878-1894, local authorities (i.e., county, borough, or district councils) were empowered to issue orders regulating the muzzling of dogs in public places and the keeping of dogs under control (otherwise than by muzzling). Offenders under these Acts are liable to a fine not exceeding P20.

The Statute 57 and 58 Vict., c. 57, gives the Board of Agriculture power to make orders for muzzling dogs, keeping them under control, and the detention and disposal of stray dogs; and section 2 of the Dogs Act, 1906 (known by some as the Curfew Bell Act), says that the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, shall have effect:

(a) For prescribing and regulating the wearing by dogs while in a highway or in a place of public resort of a collar with the name and address of the owner inscribed on the collar or on a plate or badge attached thereto:

(b) With a view to the prevention of worrying of cattle for preventing dogs or any class of dogs from straying during all or any of the hours between sunset and sunrise.

STRAY DOGS

The Dogs Act, 1906, has some important sections dealing with seizure of stray dogs, and enacts that where a police officer has reason to believe that any dog found in a highway or place of public resort is a stray dog, he may seize and retain it until the owner has claimed it and paid all expenses incurred by reason of its detention. If the dog so seized wears a collar on which is the address of any person, or if the owner of the dog is known, then the chief officer of police or some person authorised by him in that behalf shall serve on either such person a notice in writing stating that the dog has been seized, and will be sold or destroyed if not claimed within seven clear days of the service of the notice.

Failing the owner putting in an appearance and paying all expenses of detention within the seven clear days, then the chief officer of police or any person authorised by him may cause the dog to be sold, or destroyed in a manner to cause as little pain as possible. The police must keep a proper register of all dogs seized, and every such register shall be open to inspection at all reasonable times by any member of the public on payment of a fee of one shilling, and the police may transfer such dog to any establishment for the reception of stray dogs, but only if there is a proper register kept at such establishment open to inspection by the public on payment of a fee not exceeding one shilling.

Another section enacts that any person who takes possession of a stray dog shall forthwith either return the dog to its owner or give notice in writing to the chief officer of police of the district where the dog was found, containing a description of the dog and stating the place where the dog was found, and the place where he is being detained, and any person failing to comply with the provisions of this section shall be liable on conviction under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

IMPORTATION OF DOGS

The power of making Orders dealing with the importation of dogs is vested in the Board of Agriculture, who have absolute authority in the matter.

The initial step to be taken by a person wishing to import any dog into Great Britain from any other country excepting Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, is that he must fill up an application form to the said Board, which he has previously obtained from them, in which he applies for a licence to land the dog under the conditions imposed by the Board, which he undertakes to obey.

On the form he has to give a full description of the dog, the name and address of the owner, the proposed port of landing, and the approximate date of landing, and further from lists which he will receive from the Board he must select the carrying agents he proposes should superintend the movement of the dog from the port of landing to the place of detention, and also the premises of a veterinary surgeon on which he proposes the dog shall be detained and isolated as required by the Order. An imported dog must be landed and taken to its place of detention in a suitable box, hamper, crate or other receptacle, and as a general rule has to remain entirely isolated for a period of six months.

MOTOR CARS AND DOGS

Unquestionably the greatest enemy that the dog possesses at the present time is the motor car.

Presuming the owner of the dog is fortunate enough to know whose car it was that ran over his dog, and to have some evidence of excessive or unreasonable speed or other negligence on the part of the car driver at the time of the accident, he will find the law ever ready to assist him. A dog has every bit as much right to the high road as a motor car. Efforts have been made on the part of motor owners to get the Courts to hold that dogs on a high road are only under proper control if on a "lead," and that if they are not on a "lead" the owner of them is guilty of negligence in allowing his dog to stroll about, and therefore is not entitled to recover: such efforts have not been successful. Even supposing a Court to hold that the fact of a dog being loose in this way or unaccompanied was evidence of negligence against his owner this would by no means defeat his owner's claim, for the law is, that though a plaintiff may have been negligent in some such way as this, yet if the defendant could, by the exercise of reasonable care, have avoided the accident, the plaintiff can still recover. There are several cases that decide this valuable principle.



INDEX

Airedale Terrier Assyrian Sculpture and Dog —Mastiff

Basset-Hound Beagle Bedlington Terrier Bible, Dog in The Black and Tan Terrier Blenheim Spaniel Bloodhound Borzoi Breeding: Bulldog Newfoundland Borzoi Dachshund Smooth Fox-Terrier Dandie Dinmont King Charles Spaniel General Notes Bronchitis Brussels Griffon Bulldog —Miniature —French Bull-terrier ——Toy

Chow Chow Clumber Spaniel Clydesdale Terrier Cocker Spaniel Collie Constipation Coursing

Dachshund Dalmatian Dandie Dinmont Deerhound Diarrhoea Distemper

English Terrier, White English Water Spaniel Egypt, Dog in

Feeding Field Spaniel First Bite, Privileges of Fits Fleas Fox as progenitor of the Dog Foxhound Fox-terrier, Smooth —Wire-hair

Great Dane Greeks, Dogs and Ancient Greyhound —Italian

Harrier

Importation if Dogs Irish Terrier Irish Water Spaniel Italian Greyhound

Jackal as progenitor of Dog Japanese Spaniel

Kennels and their management King Charles Spaniel

Labrador, The Law, Dog and the Licences

Maltese Dog Manchester Terrier —Miniature Mange Mastiff, Assyrian —English Miniature Breeds: Bulldog French Bulldog Poodle Pomeranian Black and Tan Terrier Toy Bull-terrier Italian Greyhound Shetland Sheepdog Motor Cars and Dogs Muzzling Regulations

Newfoundland

Origin of the Dog Otterhound

Pekinese Phoenicians, and Dogs Pointer Pomeranian Poodle —Toy White Primitive Man and Dog Pug Puppies, Treatment of: Mastiff Bulldog Newfoundland Great Dane Old English Sheepdog Poodle Borzoi Dachshund King Charles Spaniel Pekinese Brussels Griffon General Notes

Retriever, Flat-Coated —Curly Rome, Dogs and Ancient

Samoyede Schipperke Scottish Terrier Setter, English —Irish —Black and Tan Sheepdog, Old English Shetland Sheepdog Skin Diseases Skye Terrier Spaniel Family, The Spaniel, Irish Water —English —Clumber —Sussex —Field —English Springer —Welsh Springer —Cocker —King Charles Springer, English —Welsh St. Bernard Stray Dogs Sussex Spaniel

Terrier, Old Working —White English —Black and Tan —Bull- —Smooth Fox- —Wire-hair Fox- —Airedale —Bedlington —Irish —Welsh —Scottish —West Highland White —Dandie Dinmont —Skye, and Clydesdale —Yorkshire

Toy Dogs: Pomeranian Poodle, White King Charles Spaniel Pekinese and Japanese Maltese and Pug Brussels Griffon Miniature Black and Tan, Bull-terrier, Italian Greyhound and Shetland Sheepdog

Waterloo Cup Welsh Terrier West Highland White Terrier Whippet Wolf as progenitor of Dog Wolfhound, Irish —Russian (Borzoi) Worm, Treatment for

Yorkshire Terrier

THE END