THE DOG 



53 



The place where the pups live must be 

 often cleansed and disinfected, as they are far 

 from cleanly themselves. The habit of cleanli- 

 ness must be taught to each puppy, one by 



Hdw TO Lift a Youno Dog 



one ; they will not learn it in a body. In lift- 

 ing young dogs they should never be taken by 

 the neck, but always under and round the 

 body by both hands. 



They will soon become the victims of fleas, 

 which, in spite of all efforts, do infest all ani- 

 mals. The pups must be washed carefully, 

 but no disapproval of the use of tobacco water 

 or turpentine can be too severe. Neither is it 

 well to use kerosene, which will destroy no more 

 fleas than careful washing. Dotzer's Cream of 

 Parasites is now the universal remedy against 

 these pests ; it is also a preventive of eruptions 

 of all kinds. 



XI. Old Age 



Dogs are in their prime when three or four 

 years old. Until their si.xth year they are 

 strong and healthy ; after that they decHne, 

 and a dog that is eight years old is regarded 



by his kind as an old fellow. At ten he is 

 really an old dog, and though he may live a 

 few years longer, the usual life of the domestic 

 dog lasts only ten or eleven years. The great- 

 est age on record is that of a spaniel who lived 

 to be twenty-si.x years old. It is remarkable 

 how old dogs, especially those who have given 

 proofs of perspicacity through life, retain their 

 intellectual faculties to the last. Leibnitz de- 

 clared that these animals never wholly die ; 

 and according to the Scandinavian mythology 

 the dog is the messenger of death. 



On the other hand, in our matter-of-fact 

 epoch, a dead dog is dead ; and the first thing 

 to do is to take the body of that friend of 

 man and bury it. Dead dogs are sometimes 



H(i\v .NOT T(i Lift Hni 



thrown into the water, where they float among 

 the reeds, and swarms of flies and mosquitoes 

 disseminate germs that are certainly injurious 

 and even poisonous. The proper way of pre- 

 venting this would be to burn all bodies of 

 animals ; but so long as the cremation of man 

 makes slow progress, that of animals will be 

 slower still. We must, therefore, bury them, 



