CHAPTER VII. 



THE CARE OF A DOG. 



The Foundation of Health Feeding The Happy Medium 

 What and When to Feed The Candy Curse The Play- 

 thing The Importance of Exercise The Airing The 

 Walk Street Breaking a Dog Following a Trap. 



AS IT has been our aim and purpose to make 

 this little book practical and useful to all 

 classes of Boston Terrier owners, we will 

 give briefly a few directions, for the benefit 

 of the novice, as to the care of a house dog. 

 The foundation of health, in dogs, as well 

 as humans, is the stomach, and we will therefore first con- 

 sider the cardinal principles of feeding. If is safe to say 

 that a vast majority of dogs kept as household pets are overfed, 

 and as a natural result they take on a superabundance of flesh 

 and become lazy and indolent. In order that the dog should 

 always be "up and coming" he should be fed lightly. In 

 other words, he should be kept in a condition to relish any- 

 thing that is put before him. Dogs are proverbially like children 

 in that they will eat until they absolutely cannot take in another 

 mouthful, then lie down and in the blissful ignorance of sleep 

 patiently awaiting the pain of colic and its attendant sorrows, 

 which, however, do not deter them from repeating the same 

 folly the very next time that opportunity affords. They lack 

 discretion and method and you must therefore use discretion 

 for them, acting much as you would if trying to raise a child. 

 Regulate carefully the amount of food given by the amount of 

 exercise that 'the dog has taken, varying each day to fit the 

 needs of the moment. 



It is a good idea to weigh your dog from time to time, and 

 having ascertained what his weight ought to be to increase or 

 decrease the quantity of food given, so as to keep him in the 

 best posible condition. In hot weather, or after a day when 

 rain and storm has forced him to loll around the house, do not 

 feed him as much as you would under other circumstances. If, 

 on the other hand, it is the dead of a cold winter, or you have 



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