CHAPTER VI. 



EARLIEST PUPPYHOOD. 



The first six weeks is practically a puppy's infancy, and 

 during this, as in infancy proper, the mortality is far 

 greater than in any other period of life, for the reason 

 that the resistant powers are then very feeble and in 

 conseqence the system is easily deranged and diseased. 

 Considering which, notwithstanding the general rules of 

 management have been discussed at length in the pre- 

 ceding chapters, the special requirements during earliest 

 puppyhood will bear further emphasis, and even repetition 

 can properly be indulged in if necessary to give due 

 prominence to the important essentials. 



The first fact to be enlarged upon is, that except in 

 hot weather all very young puppies must have artificial 

 warmth, not alone because they are poorly able to resist 

 the depressing and destructive influences of cold, but 

 because they are in imperative need of that extraordinary 

 vivifying effect of warmth which reaches to all parts of 

 the body and excites stronger and healthier action in 

 every important organ. Indeed, so great is the suscepti- 

 bility of the new-born to cold it can properly be said that 



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