102 General Management of the Dog 



with a man on horseback once or twice a week on the road. 

 Very little flesh should be given them, which is only- 

 wanted when they have severe work, and can seldom then 

 be procured. Greaves, with meal, and occasionally pota- 

 toes, form the best food ; carrots, cabbages, or turnips 

 should be given once or twice a week ; and a dose or two 

 of castor oil, salts, or jalap will do good tw^o or three times 

 in the summer, or an aloetic ball. 



Management of Whelps. 



Coursing will equally apply to other sporting dogs. 

 Few people will take the full amount of trouble which 

 should be bestowed on whelps, but it will suffice if the 

 whelps are sent into the country to be reared at the 

 butcher's, or the tanner's, or at the small wayside public 

 house. When milk or buttermilk can be obtained, it is a 

 good article to rear all whelps upon ; but it is seldom 

 afforded to ordinary dogs. The accidents likely to occur 

 in whelping are alluded to in the part on the diseases of 

 the dog. 



Dressing. 



Dressing Avith a mixture of sulphur and train oil is very 

 generally adopted every year with sporting dogs, and if 

 they are mismanaged in their feeding, it is absolutely neces- 

 sary ; if, however, they are clean in their skins, it is not 

 required. Soft soap and soda kills their fleas, and white 

 precipitate, ticks ; but the latter should only be used with 

 a muzzle on, to guard against its being taken into the 

 stomach by the tongue. Carbolic acid, diluted with twenty 

 or thirty times its bulk of water, likewise kills fleas, but it 

 also requires a muzzle. 



Kennels. 



Sporting dogs, as, for example, pointers or setters, are 

 often kept in such numbers as to require a kennel or ken- 

 nels. When such is the case, an open yard paved with 

 glazed tiles or blue bricks must be added, but it is better 

 not covered in. The lodging-room must be in proportion 

 to the number of dogs, but it is better not to have more 



