$44 USEFUL INFORMATION REGARDING DOGS. 



and an hour before he is to leave take him out for a walk of a half dozen 

 blocks or more, and he will be sure to attend to nature's calls. If you 

 start dog on a morning train, get up early enough that morning to attend 

 to this before he leaves. Then offer him a drink before he starts and thus 

 he leaves with an empty stomach and will have a much more comfortable 

 trip than if he started after having had a full meal. Many house-broken 

 dogs will "hold in" and will not do anything in their traveling box, which 

 will cause inflammation of the bowels or kidneys. Better for the dog if it 

 did break the rule for this time. Puppies of course are not so systematic 

 and generally get through better if suitably crated. 



Now make a prominent sign like this and tack it on top of box: 



AN "OPEN LETTER" FROM A DOG. 



Mr. Messenger — My name is I am on a hard, long trip, 



and can only get through with your assistance and kind care, for which I 

 will thank you in my way. I will not bite you! Confinement in this 

 box is bad enough — but I do need a drink and a bite to eat. 



Some express messengers are, I am sorry to say, afraid of dogs, but 

 by furnishing them the name of dog, when they speak to him he — the dog 

 ■ — will think he has found a friend, probably wag his tail and give an as- 

 surance by his looks to the messenger that he is all right, and thus secure 

 better care and some kind words from the messenger and add to the dog's 

 comfort on the trip, 



Always crate a dog, never ship him on chain for several good reasons. 

 Crating is safer, cleaner, and more comfortable for the dog. On chain he 

 takes too many chances. He may slip his collar and jump out of the car 

 door, or in a crowded car a trunk or box might fall on and injure him, and 

 besides, the express company's charge for any dog on chain is not less than 

 a hundred pounds, even if it was only a twenty-pound dog. 



Always notify by previous mail or by wire the party who is to get the 

 dog, so that he may know when to look for him and meet the dog at depot, 

 thus shortening his trip a bit and avoiding the delay caused by the dog 

 being taken first to city express office, laying there awhile and then drove 

 around to the house he is directed to. 



Don't ship a 3x1 dog in a 3x1 crate. You like to stretch yourself 

 sometimes. Neither should you ship it in a box far too large. A dog in 

 such a box will often receive a nasty knock in being handled none too 

 gently by the messenger; if you do, besides, you or the other fellow will 

 have to pay useless express charges. 



Dogs Chained Up. — I do not believe in chaining dogs up in a yard, but 

 if you want him chained at night don't make it too short — and he must 

 have freedom during the day. To keep a dog chained constantly day and 

 night is cruel and inhuman, and will make any dog cross. Dogs are not 

 born cross — you never saw a cross puppy — and when you see a cross dog 

 some human being — man, woman or some good-for-nothing boy — is to 

 blame for it, not the dog. There would be no cross dogs if people were 

 not the cause of it by their ill treatment of the dog any more than there 

 would be a balky horse only for men — fools and brutes — who make balky 

 horses. 



If you must chain the dog up during the day, then give him his lib- 

 erty at night. It is not necessary to chain him up if you have a yard with 

 a fence high enough and gate securely fastened. Many a bad boy will 

 delight to tease your dog simply because he sees he is chained up — for the 

 boy would be afraid to if the dog was loose — and this teasing makes a cross 

 dog. I don't blame the dog, but I do the boy. 



If you have no yard fenced in and a large dog and must keep it on 

 chain part of the time, allow at least 20 feet of chain. Fancy the misery 

 of a man full of life and energy trying to take exercise by pulling and 

 ■training against a chain three or four feet long. Yet this is the length 



