LODGING. 209 



NECESSITY FOR WARM AND DRY LODGING. 



All puppies require a dry lodging, and in the winter season 

 it should also be a warm one. Greyhound whelps, up to their 

 third or fourth month, are sometimes reared in an artificial tem- 

 perature, either by means of a stove, or by using the heat of a 

 stable, the temperature chosen being 60° of Fahrenheit. Beyond 

 this age, it can never be necessary to adopt artificial heat in rearing 

 puppies, because for public coursing they are required to be 

 whelped after the last day of the year, and four months from 

 that time takes us on to May, when the weather is seldom cold 

 enough to require a stove; and then during the summer months 

 they are gradually hardened to the vicissitudes of the weather, 

 and as they become older their growth is established, and they 

 are no longer in danger of its being checked. It is true that 

 some few coursers always keep their kennels at 60° ; but on the 

 whole, as we shall hereafter find, the plan is not a good one, 

 and need not be considered here. But far beyond the warmth 

 is dryness essential to sviccess. Dogs will bear almost any 

 amount of cold if unaccompanied by damp, provided they have 

 plenty of straw to lie in ; but a damp kennel, even if warm, 

 is sure to lead to rickets or rheumatism, if the puppies escape in- 

 flammation of some one or more of the internal organs. Take care, 

 therefore, to give a dry bedstead of boards, lined with the same 

 material towards the wall, (the cold of which strikes inwards 

 and gives cold,) and raised somewhat from the floor, which will 



