1 6 A MANUAL OF TOY DOGS 



and the one in which so many of them die. Neglect, 

 or dirty surroundings, are fatal to these little delicate 

 atoms, which really call for the same attention we 

 should give a baby ; monotony being kept shut up in 

 one small room for hours or days and lack of fresh air, 

 carry off many ; while sour milk, meals left about in 

 odds and ends, irregular feeding, and lying to sleep in 

 draughts, are all elements of danger. We want to give 

 them warmth and dry ness, without stuffiness and over- 

 heating ; we want to give them sweet, tempting, clean 

 little meals, regularly, four times a day, just as much 

 as they can eat eagerly and no more ; we want to give 

 them a cosy day-bed to go to sleep whenever they feel 

 inclined which will be often and, lastly, to let them 

 have all the fresh air and out-of-door sunshine they 

 can get without fear of chill. Thus it is that summer 

 puppies, born in the spring, with all the best weather 

 before them, do so much better than those which 

 have the critical teething period to pass through in 

 winter time. 



A toy puppy grows more quickly than, for instance, 

 a terrier, and, of course, is adult far sooner than a 

 big dog ; the short-haired varieties, again, coming to 

 maturity sooner than the long-coated ones. A York- 

 shire terrier is adult at a year, but does not get his full 

 beauty of coat until he is two years old, or thereabouts. 

 A toy Schipperke is, so to speak, grown-up at ten or 

 eleven months, but goes on thickening and improving 

 in shape, and probably increasing and hardening in 

 coat for another year at lest. A Pom's jacket gets 

 grander at each moult until he is three years old. ^As 

 a general rule it may be laid down that the dog is a 

 puppy no longer at ten months, when his teething is 

 almost always entirely completed. This same teething 

 is a tiresome process, comprising the change of the first 

 set of wee ivories for the permanent forty-two which 

 are to carry the owner through life. Nearly every 

 puppy suffers more or less in the process, some from 

 fits, some from skin irritation, some from colds in the 



