THE SCOTCH DEERHOUND. 179 



more than six or seven whelps. My experience is that if 

 you help a good mother she will raise eight or ten just as 

 well as five or six, and much better than if she has no help 

 with the smaller number. Puppies at three weeks old will 

 begin to eat soup, and should have it four or five times 

 daily. At four weeks old they will eat codliver-oil cake, 

 softened in strong beef or mutton soup, and should have it 

 three times daily all they will eat. Always keep your 

 feeding-pans sweet and clean. When you feed the puppies, 

 remain with them until they are done eating; then take 

 away what they leave, give it to the dam, and wash your 

 feeding-pan, so it will be clean when next wanted. Under 

 such treatment you will notice that the dam has very little 

 trouble with her litter, and she will not begin to grow fat. 

 At six or seven weeks of age her puppies will be weaned. 

 She will have raised ten just as easily as she would have 

 raised five, and if they are bred for sale it makes a vast dif- 

 ference in the income. 



Many people say that Deerhound puppies are exceed- 

 ingly hard to raise. I have never found it so. Give them 

 plenty of exercise and good food and they will raise them- 

 selves, anywhere and in any climate. 



It is well to give puppies, once a month, a dose of san- 

 tonine, to clean out any worms they may have. 



I have never lost a puppy with distemper, and have 

 always made it a rule to have them in good condition at all 

 times; then when distemper has taken hold of them, they 

 have usually had but a slight attack, and have gone 

 through it in good shape. I have never yet seen a Deer- 

 hound that was afflicted with chorea. 



TRAINING. 



I do not believe in early training, and hence have never 

 worked or prepared a Deerhound under twelve to fifteen 

 months old. My experience is that the breed develops 

 slowly, and for this reason a puppy at nine months old is 

 not strong enough to follow a deer in any of our American 

 forests. A carefully reared puppy can, at nine or ten 



