DOG BREEDING 109 



eyesight be impaired. If the pups cry and do not 

 seem to be gaining, call in a vet. at once, for there 

 is something radically wrong. These few weeks 

 are the most important in a dog's life; like chil- 

 dren, if not started right in extreme infancy, they 

 will be handicapped for life by bodily infirmity 

 and weakness. The ailments that afflict very 

 yonng pups may range all the way from poisonous 

 milk in the dam to worms or navel ill in the pups, 

 all of which matters are treated in a later chapter 

 of this book. In general, the surest way to avoid 

 infection in very young pups is to have the whelp- 

 ing-room and everything connected with it thor- 

 oughly sprayed with some mild disinfectant like 

 diluted listerine. 



A bitter question here arises : If the bitch has a 

 large family, what shall we do with the less de- 

 sirables ? More than five or six is all she can suc- 

 cessfully raise, or else all of them will be under- 

 fed and liable to be carried off by the first kennel 

 disease that comes along. Have you the heart to 

 kill cmy of those soft, fat, fluffy darlings, each one 

 of which if a thoroughbred is worth at least $25? 

 Yet it must be done, if the family is large and no 

 foster mother available. Better arrange before- 

 hand for a foster mother if the pups are valuable. 



