KENNEL MANAGEMENT OF DOGS. 237 



pine-shavings. All other beds, straw especially, promote 

 vermin ; this seems to prevent them. 



The best food for dogs is old Indian meal stirred, with 

 a handful of salt, into water while it is boiling, till it is 

 quite thick, and allowed to become cold ; when it should be 

 served with broth, buttermilk, or milk, where it can be 

 obtained. Occasionally, if the dogs are low in condition, 

 a complete blow-out of flesh may be given to them ; it acts 

 as a purgative, and they are the better after it. It should 

 not, however, be given above once or twice a year, a few 

 weeks before the opening and close of the shooting season. 

 "While at work, dogs should never have flesh, except 

 cooked ; and of that the less the better. Broth is all that 

 is requisite, and where milk can be obtained it is prefer- 

 able to broth. Four sheep's heads a week, will be amply 

 sufficient to make broth for a kennel of three dogs. The 



o 



bones should never be given. They are constant causes 

 of contention, where there are two or more dogs together ; 

 they engender filth and disease, and they are seriously 

 injurious to the teeth. 



Dogs much accustomed to flesh are attacked far more 

 severely than others by the special catarrh the disease 

 known as distemper suffer from it far more acutely, and 

 are more difficult of cure, since exceedingly low diet is, 

 perhaps, the most efficacious mode of treatment ; and when 

 dogs are entirely or principally kept on animal food, it is 

 with great difficulty that they can be induced to take any 

 other. 



The water supplied to kennels or single dogs cannot be 

 too fresh, too pure, or too frequently changed. Naturally, 



