TRAINING. 305 



Puppies that have yards connected with their kennels 

 and they are accessible day and night, soon become vol- 

 untarily cleanly ; and until they do so the droppings should 

 be removed once or twice daily and the floors treated to 

 a deodorizer. 



House-breaking should never be thought of during cold 

 weather, as cleanliness in habit is then out of the question, 

 for in order to promote it a puppy must be put out of 

 doors not less often than once an hour. Nor must he be 

 permitted to pass a night in the house before he is five or 

 six months old ; at which age this virtue will ordinarily 

 have become fixed if invariably practised during the day. 

 And in the absence of a convenient outbuilding for sleep- 

 ing quarters he should be put into some other room than 

 that which he is allowed to occupy during the day, to- 

 gether with a shallow box of sawdust or dry earth, to 

 which he will soon learn to turn, provided for a few nights 

 it holds one of his droppings. 



A custom of many people who attempt to teach pup- 

 pies neatness is to bedabble their noses with filth and 

 toss them out of doors. It ought not to be necessary to 

 urge that this is as stupid as it is nasty, and that the 

 infliction is no more effectual than a scolding adminis- 

 tered while the offender is held close to the soiled spot. 

 Accepting the facts that dogs inherently are far from 

 being filthy animals, that they are uncleanly in their 

 habits only when their natural tendencies have been per- 

 verted by restraint or neglect, also, that they are capable 

 of some understanding at a very early age, such beastly 

 practices as this will never be indulged in by people of 

 sense who undertake to teach them correct deportment. 



It is a well-known maxim that first impressions strike 

 the deepest. And he who assumes the education of a 

 puppy will do well to keep this ever in mind. Beginners 



