The Care of the House Dog.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 1, 7 July 1909, Page 36

The Care of the House Dog.

HOW HE MAY BE KEPT HEALTHY AND CONTENTED.

(By MRS. J. D. HAY'-SHAW.)

Nineteen out of twenty households number one, if not more, dogs among their inmates, and in certainly sixteen of them the dogs are either unduly pampered or neglected: not intentionally, of course, but simply out of sheer ignorance on the part of the owner. Taking first the question of feeding, which is a matter of the utmost importance to the health of the dog, the majority of house dogs live on odd meals of table scraps given to them whenever it suits the convenience of the owner or the cook, the latter personage doing more harm than anyone by

the bestowal of unlimited tit-bits, which ultimately lead to the dog becoming gross and lethargic. The feeding of dogs should never be delegated to servants, for although table-scraps are excellent in their way, the supply can be very easily overdone, and all servants have a tendency to regard the dog as a handy substitute for the scrap-bucket, with the result that the dog is frequently sick, and the fond owner runs off to the nearest “vet,” for remedies which a little wholesome starvation would render unnecessary. Dogs should be fed as regularly and systematically as human beings. Every one knows that to stuff a child all day long with rich food and sweets is fatal to its digestion and general health; and the same rule applies to the house dog. Meal Times.

Dogs which are kept in kennels and fed only at stated hours are generally in better condition than dogs that are kept in the house and fed indiscriminately. No food at all is necessary in the morning, except. perhaps, a dry biscuit, and the principal meal of the day should be given about three o’clock in the afternoon, and consist of a good dish of lean, cooked meat, green vegetables (too much stress cannot be laid

on the importance of these), and the whole mixed with gravy soup and made

thick and fairly dry by the addition of broken biscuit, some good dog-meal, or broken, stale bread. Once or twice a week fish should be substituted for meat.

An occasional feed of raw meat is a safeguard against skin diseases, and all dogs which have not free access to grass should be given, at least once a week, a little flowers of sulphur mixed up with their food.

The popular idea that the dog is a dirty feeder and will eat or drink anything is a fallacy, and all bowls for food or water should be washed as regularly as the other household crockery. Little Bones.

Bones, except for hounds, which do not require them, are good, and should always be given when available, but under no circumstances should fish, rabbit, or small chicken bones find their way to the dog’s bowl, as they splinter and very often result in serious trouble.

Most dogs are better if they sleep out of the house, and if a kennel is put in the yard it should be raised on bricks and made thoroughly waterproof with plenty of good, clean, dry straw

supplied as bedding. More canine troubles arise from dogs sleeping on a damp bed than anything else.

Dogs are subject to various illnesses which require quite as careful nursing as do the same diseases in human beings, but they 7 are too numerous to mention here, except to remark that the bugbear “distemper,” which looms so large in most people’s eyes, is by no means as fearful as they imagine; nor is there any more reason why every dog should have it than that every child should have scarlet fever, and it is perfectly safe to buy a puppy which has not suffered from this disease. Provided the dog is always kept thoroughly dry, properly fed and exercised, and not allowed to roam about at will, he should go through all his life without having it, or if by chance he conies in contact with the infection, he will, if he takes it at all, have it so slightly that, if proper care is taken, he will be none the worse. In severe cases a qualified “vet.” should be called in, but more depends on nursing than medicines, and if a dog is very weak,

it must be fed every half hour with restoratives and meat extracts in small quantities.

■Whisky As Medicine. One of the most useful remedies in all cases of canine exhaustion, whether resulting from disease, cold, wet, or the effects of a bad fight, is whisky, and a few drops given in a dessertspoonful of water works wonders. It is generally necessary to pour down his throat, as a weak or tired dog will seldom lap. If the dog will drink of his own accord, warm milk with a few drops of whisky added is a good restorative, and in case of a severe cold or in the early stages of distemper I have found that two or three drops of tincture of aconite in a dessertspoonful of milk or water, given about every four hours, has beneficial results.

All medicines should, of course, be regulated according to the size of the dog, and in the same way the form and amount of exercise must be in accordance with the requirements of the dog, and not by any hard-and-fast rule, for while hounds and terriers are improved by miles of tramping along hard roads, such treatment would bring about dire results if meted out to bulldogs or toys. If a dog comes in wet and muddy, he should be thoroughly rubbed with a towel and kept by a fire or allowed to roll in dry straw until he is dry enough to be brushed. Apropos of brushing, all dogs want daily grooming, and with long-haired breeds combing is necessary to keep their eoats free from matting. Many people maintain that if a dog is properly groomed he never requires a bath, but, personally, I think all of them are better for an occasional tubbing.

Punishment should be as carefully administered as to a child, care being always taken that the dog is made to understand the reason for it, and it is quite useless and absolutely brutal to thrash a dog when he does not know in what manner he has offended.

Irritability and snappishness are more often the result of injudicious handling than of innate viciousness.