THE CARE OF PUPPIES 



Meanwhile the puppies, like plants, require all the 

 sun and air that they can get, with plenty of liberty to 

 develop freedom of action. The best possible form of 

 exercise is to allow them to run about until they are 

 tired out, and then put them to bed. If possible their 

 run should be on concrete, asphalte, or, at any rate, on 

 gravel, which helps to set their little feet into shapely 

 and compact pads. Unlike plants, however, they require 

 no rain, and special care must be taken to prevent 

 them from getting wet. If they should accidentally do 

 so, they are to be at once carefully dried with a towel. 



During these early months of their existence the 

 pace at which they grow and develop in bone and 

 substance is quite extraordinary, and it is at this period 

 that they specially repay the most generous diet and the 

 most watchful individual attention. They increase pro- 

 digiously in weight from week to week, and their future, 

 as regards size and constitution, very largely depends 

 upon the treatment they receive at this early stage. 



At three months old the number of their daily meals 

 may be reduced to four, and about this time their mother 

 will generally begin to lose her coat. She must be 

 fed as liberally as possible, and will have ceased to take 

 any interest whatever in her progeny. If any of the 

 puppies are to be sold they are now fully able to fend 

 for themselves, and are quite ready to be despatched to 

 their new home. 



Somewhere about the fourth month the pups begin to 



