HOUND MANAGEMENT 197 



blood, or they may lose some of their zest and keen- 

 ness. For this reason if a huntsman, as will some- 

 times happen now and again in a poor hare country, 

 has a run of bad luck, even a chop — usually counted 

 a disaster — is better than no hare at all. 



Hound ailments must, necessarily, be a source of 

 constant anxiety and constant watchfulness in all 

 kennels. Exercise is, of course, as with human beings, 

 one of the first preventives against many complaints. 

 The summer work I have already touched upon. In 

 winter, when hounds are in full work, they should 

 never have less than an hour and a half of steady 

 exercise, preferably on the road, on the days when 

 they are not hunting. Distemper remains to this hour 

 the disease most dreaded and most dangerous to young 

 hounds. All sorts of prophylactics and patent cures 

 have been proclaimed, from time immemorial, yet up 

 to the present day this ailment remains unconquered. 

 In some seasons it is far worse than in others. During 

 the spring and summer of 1902 the ravages of distemper 

 were more fatal than they have been for a generation 

 past. Some packs lost practically the whole of their 

 young hounds, and many others, throughout the 

 length and breadth of the country, suffered very 

 severely. The ailment was complicated by much 

 influenza and, under the influence of the two, the 

 young entry were swept off like flies. Paralysis in 

 these cases frequently set in, and nothing could save 

 the unfortunate patient. Distemper is also frequently 

 complicated by jaundice, or " yellows," as kennel 

 huntsmen prefer to call it. Jaundice, it is to be 

 remembered, is not seldom induced by over-feeding 

 and lack of exercise. Young hounds, by the way, 

 when at kennel, should have the run of the grass yard 

 the whole day, in addition to their ordinary exercise. 



