CARE OF THE NEW-BORN. 2/ 1 



If a puppy takes kindly to the bottle the first day the 

 chances of carrying him through are fairly good. But 

 only an occasional one will do this, and even he is likely to 

 fall victim to diarrhoea, colic or other digestive disturb- 

 ances. However, this unfavorable outlook ought not to 

 deter any one from endeavoring to save valuable puppies 

 when this is the last resource. 



In some countries infants deprived of their mother's 

 milk are often nursed by animals, and most frequently by 

 the she-goat, which, besides being docile and easily trained 

 to yield nourishment to the child, has teats of a very favor- 

 able shape and size, and this animal has proved as conven- 

 ient a foster mother for puppies of large breeds. The 

 sheep has also been pressed into like service, but being 

 generally wild and intractable she has rarely proved an 

 eminent success. As for the small breeds, to secure a 

 foster for them is easier, as cats can as a rule be readily 

 persuaded to adopt them; and their milk seems well suited 

 to puppies, for in many instances they have been nourished 

 by it from birth and thrived as well as they could have 

 done on the milk of their natural mother. 



Returning to the real mother, even if she has a goodly 

 supply of milk she can rarely do justice to more than eight 

 puppies, and were it the rule to reduce all large litters to 

 six, breeding would be far more profitable than it is now ; 

 moreover, there would be a marked improvement in the 

 canine race. But the man who has paid a large price for 

 his bitch and a heavy fee for " service" is generally anx- 

 ious to " get his money back" as soon as possible, and the 

 larger the litter the greater his delight. As he views the 

 matter, every puppy has a fixed value, and to sacrifice one 

 is simply to throw away so many hard dollars ; therefore, 

 he looks to the mother to nurse them all, even if there are 

 ten or more — that is, unless he has learned from experi- 

 ence that he is expecting altogether too much. 



