244 THE BOOK OF THE Doc. 



says Mr. Thacker, " feeding becomes a matter of first-rate importance, only surpassed by the 

 physical superiority of the dog himself. If you feed a dog with a sufficient quantity of nutritious 

 food to make him superabundantly fat and fleshy, you are obliged to give a corresponding 

 quantity of severe exercise to reduce him to a standard of health and fine muscular development, 

 while you unload his chest of superfluous fatty matter in order to increase its capacity, and 

 consequently improve his wind. In producing this fine state, and during the process required, 

 the dog necessarily becomes dull and stiff in his joints, and he is {pro tempore) deprived of 

 that essential quality fire which I have spoken of before. 



" A Greyhound in tip-top condition should be all fire, animation, and sprightliness ; his 

 gaiety, expressed in the sparkle of his eyes and the bounding elasticity of his limbs, should be 

 so refreshing to the beholder as to produce the idea that the excellences of the animal could 

 be carried no further. A combination of the greatest strength from large muscular development 

 should be united with the best state of the wind to produce what is called fine condition, and 

 to attain this very desirable end the animation of the animal should not be depressed by undue 



exercise, which frequently deprives him of the acme of his speed as well as fire 



Dogs as well as horses may be over-trained ; too much exertion long persisted in appears to 

 destroy the vigour of the animal by exhausting his powers. 



" In order to provide for this combination of circumstances, and to prepare the dog for 

 coursing in the finest possible state of condition, there is a variety of considerations to be taken 

 into account ; for each sportsman has his favourite system of feeding them, and the food given 

 is of different sorts, affording different degrees of nutriment and of different degrees of digesti- 

 bility, flesh and bone, gelatinous and farinaceous substances, and liquids with more or less 

 nutritious matter contained in them. Some feed but once in a day, while others, to avoid over- 

 distending the stomach and oppressing the organs of digestion, commit an error in the opposite 

 extreme by giving only half a meal at a time, and that twice a day." 



This latter system is decidedly disapproved of by the author, as being injurious to a healthy 

 dog, mainly on the ground that in the dog digestion is carried on with great rapidity. Upon 

 the subject of diet the author of the " Courser's Companion " is most decided in his advocacy 

 of meat being supplied ; in his own words, he says : " There are different sorts of condition- 

 good, bad, and indifferent and I am aware that many Greyhounds run, what is called 

 well, under a regimen of gelatine and farina, their natural courage being such as induces 

 them to do so -ithout flesh. But this is no proof that the same dogs would not have run 

 better -with it. . . . You may gain fire by keeping a dog under restraint, but unless you give 

 him sufficiently severe exercise for his wind and strength, that fire will be only like a flash 

 in the pan ; you will in fact lose fire in a two-fold manner. Flesh, being more nutritious and 

 stimulating, imparts more fire to his temperament than weaker or less natural food, and by giving 

 flesh in proper proportion you do not lose the fire imparted by restraint; for with flesh he does 

 not require such severity of exercise to compress the fibres to a state of active and powerful 

 capability as will deprive him of his fire. Flesh, however, possessing much nutriment and 

 stimulus, if given too plentifully would require very strong exercise to prevent the blood being 

 too rich, and must, therefore, be equally avoided as giving him too little or none ; a moderate 

 quantity in his daily meals instead of jelly food." 



Arrian, who styled himself the younger Xenophon, wrote the following description of 

 coursing as carried on by the ancients, which clearly proves the antiquity of this class of 



