

THE IRISH SETTER. 51 



Another illustration is my old Champion Chief. He has 

 always been the same steady, reliable, every-day dog; first 

 or last in the season, he would point his birds stanchly, 

 and needed no repeated breakings. The first one has lasted 

 him so far very well; and while "old in years, he still looks 

 fine and is in perfect health, confirming my experience that 

 Setters of this breed, while maturing later, outlast most of 

 the dogs of other breeds. A letter recently received from 

 South Carolina confirms this still further, as Doctor Jarvis 

 writes me that his Champion Elcho, Junior, though nine 

 years old, hunts day in and day out, and does most excel- 

 lent work for him. 



My experience with this breed dates back nearly twenty 

 years, and I feel able to guarantee this disposition of our 

 strain of dogs, and to state that in all this time I have never 

 owned a vicious one. I have seldom seen one that would 

 not make an excellent playmate for a child, yet I have had 

 many that were most perfect watch-dogs, and that showed 

 more than human intelligence in discriminating between 

 proper and improper sounds and doings at night, without 

 special training to it. 



The management of my kennel is the most simple. I 

 have no kennel buildings except a rough board box for each 

 dog, with a wire run in summer and stall and barn for win- 

 ter, where I place these kennels. If one becomes infested 

 with vermin, it is burned. The dogs are exercised twice a 

 day, for half an hour, where they have access to the spring 

 brooks; are fed once a day in summer and twice in winter. 

 We boil beef and bones, and soak half a loaf of toasted 

 stale bread for each dog, varying this now and then with 

 corn and oatmeal mush cooked in beef broth; and they 

 relish it all. 



When I have a sick dog, I try to find out what his 

 trouble is, and then treat him accordingly, and am very par- 

 ticular with young dogs showing symptoms of distemper, 

 which must be most carefully diagnosed. There is no such 

 thing as a distemper cure that will fit all cases. Each case 

 requires special treatment; and hundreds of young dogs, I 



