POVERTY OF BLOOD — PREPARING FOR SHOW 



Poverty of Blood may be a result of constitutional 

 weakness or bad feeding, and the only course to pursue 

 in such cases is to provide the dog with a sufficiency of 

 strengthening nourishment, such as beef-tea and boiled 

 mutton mixed with pearl-barley, plenty of fresh air, gentle 

 exercise, and a tonic. For the latter purpose Spratt's 

 Patent Tonic Condition Pills will be found most efficacious. 

 (See Debility.) 



Preparing for Show. — There is not very much art 

 required to bring a dog into the show-ring in good con- 

 dition, provided that the person entrusted with the duty 

 has good material and a healthy animal to work upon, 

 and that proper attention is paid by him to the questions 

 of feeding, exercising, kennelling, and grooming. A dog 

 that is intelligently cared for under normal conditions will 

 not require much tuning up for exhibition, but his owner 

 will naturally be anxious that he should look smart and 

 hard, that his muscles should show up w^ell, and that his 

 coat should be at its best. Under such circumstances the 

 importance of plenty of exercise, not necessarily of a violent 

 nature, but long and slow, cannot be overestimated, as 

 this is the sort of thing to lay on muscle and promote a 

 healthy appetite, and when the dog feeds well he usually 

 looks well. It may here be pointed out once and for all, 

 that a quantity of stimulating, fattening food is bad for a 

 show dog, as it renders him soft and flabby and liable to 

 breakings out of the skin, which may ruin his coat ; con- 

 sequently, though an additional allowance of flesh may be 

 given him, the extra quantity to be regulated by the amount 

 of exercise he gets, all heating foods should be taboo. 

 On coming in from exercise his legs and feet should be 

 carefully examined in case they have been cut, or that 

 thorns or splinters may have run into them, as it would be 

 awkward if he was lame on the eventful day. If necessary, 

 they should be washed and dried, and his coat should be 

 gone over with a brush and linen cloth before he is allowed 



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