272 KENNEL SECRETS. 



The infinite majority of those who have yielded to such 

 irrational promptings have met with bitter disappointment 

 and seen puppy after puppy drop off with alarming fre- 

 quency. And oftentimes within such experiences the few 

 remaining at the end of the third week have scarcely been 

 worth raising ; whereas had the litters been properly 

 reduced in size at first, very many of the puppies would 

 doubtless have been saved and reached the weaning strong 

 and healthy. 



While nursing a litter of good size a mother is under a 

 strain that may affect her vitality. Unless a puppy has 

 an abundant supply of milk to draw from he cannot thrive 

 and develop well ; and were one deprived of it to live he 

 must be more or less weakly and stunted. Acting in 

 accordance with these important facts the intelligent 

 breeder who has too large a litter will promptly reduce its 

 size, either by providing a foster-mother, by artificial feed- 

 ing or drowning. If the latter means must be resorted 

 to, as a rule he need not apply it the first day unless there 

 are several females in the litter that he does not care to 

 raise ; in which event the sooner he disposes of them the 

 better. 



Other weedings may be left to the second day, because 

 it is rarely possible on the first to distinguish between the 

 weakly and the healthy and vigorous, and of course the 

 former are to go if a sacrifice is demanded. And even 

 with a litter reduced to fair size the chances are that more 

 than one member of it will drop out before the weaning 

 period has been reached. 



Bearing strongly upon this point is the important fact 

 already stated, that puppies should have ample nourish- 

 ment in the first few hours of life. Now, if the milk sup- 

 ply is scanty during the first week, even if abundant 

 afterward, the deprivation will very generally have a 



