DIETARY FOR PUPPIES. 55 



Puppies that have done so and weighted themselves 

 down with food are soon sleeping, and generally continue 

 in this state during much of the intervals between feed- 

 ings, or if awake they are dull and sluggish and disin- 

 clined to move about. And assuredly while like this 

 their legs cannot be developing strength as they ought ; 

 moreover, their systems must be choking up with waste 

 impurities, which inevitably accumulate where the exer- 

 cise is limited unless the food is bland in character and of 

 small amount. 



It ought not be necessary to urge that the legs of 

 very young puppies are weak and scarcely able to bear 

 their bodies even. Now allow them to fill up continually 

 with food or drink, and deformity is quite sure to result. 

 And in fact did a breeder desire his puppies to become 

 bandy-legged, weak in the pasterns and badly placed at 

 the elbows, he could employ no surer method to effect the 

 result than stuffing them three times a day. 



Every ounce of food — every grain even — is so much 

 weight on the legs. Let this fact be fixed ; also, that 

 while rapid growth and weight of body may be to the 

 breeder a pleasing sight, if it passes over the line 

 the limbs must suffer and symmetry be simply out of 

 the question. 



Considering the matter intelligently, on all sides, there 

 can be but one conclusion, namely, that puppies while yet 

 very young should be "fed little and often." They must 

 not be fed until their abdomens are distended and their 

 appetites glutted, but they must leave off eating while yet 

 ready for more. And then, that their limbs may acquire 

 strength and the foods they have eaten do them the 

 greatest good, they must be kept as much of the time on 

 their feet and as active as possible. 



To this end they should be given shin bones from 



