88 KENNEL SECRETS. 



vented from carrying bones to their beds — a habit which 

 is not only unpleasant but dangerous, for it has ended in 

 death in consequence of intestinal stoppage caused by the 

 straw swallowed during the gnawing. 



This arrangement is ample for moderate weather, but as 

 soon as winter sets in it will generally be necessary to 

 provide a sleeping-box. One might be constructed over 

 the bench, but it is cheaper and quite as well to use a 

 large packing case. This well filled with bedding will 

 furnish warm and cosey sleeping quarters. And economy 

 and prudence suggest that it be burned in the spring or 

 at once the occupant has infected it with mange, distem- 

 per or other contagious disease. 



All that remains to complete the furnishings are a gate 

 or screen door, to be hinged to the outer part of the door- 

 frame, for use in hot weather, and a storm window for 

 winter. 



A kennel constructed on these lines costs much less 

 than the average reader will assume — in fact thirty-five, 

 or at the most forty, dollars ought to pay for the work and 

 materials. It might be built for less and it might cost 

 more — all depending of course on the one who pro- 

 vided the materials and the quality of work — but the 

 largest sum stated should be ample for a well-con- 

 structed building. 



But cost what it may it is the very simplest and least 

 expensive kind of a kennel, and the man who cannot pro- 

 vide as good quarters as this ought not attempt to keep a 

 dog. Certainly there is nothing fanciful about it ; it com- 

 prises merely the absolute requisites, — dryness, air, sun- 

 shine and protection from cold ; and if a puppy is denied 

 either of these he will inevitably be weakly and stunted, if 

 not worse, while under the same conditions a mature dog 

 must as surely decline in health and vigor and become a 

 frequent sufferer from disease. 



