64 BREEDING POINTERS, &C. 



but two effectual remedies, the first is to keep the bitch under 

 lock and key ; where this is inconvenient, if her shape\*Q touched 

 with a red hot iron, so as to make it sufficiently sore, without 

 seriously injuring the animal, she will not suffer the conjuHCtion 

 of the dog : the reason is obvious, the pain caused, under these 

 circumstances, by his approaches, will induce the bitch to resist, 

 and drive him off 



Dogs, and young ones in particular, should be kept in the 

 country. If when a whelp be taken from its dam, it is fed upon 

 light food, such as potatoes and buttermilk, with a little oatmeal, 

 &c. and seldom or never indulged with carrion, or flesh of any 

 kind, it will scarcely ever be attacked with the distemper, a 

 disease which has been long known in this country, and which 

 makes frightful havoc among dogs bred in towns, highly fed, 

 and which have little exercise: exercise in particular is a very 

 essential requisite to the health of young dogs. 



In selecting whelps for the purpose of rearing, the sportsman 

 will of course consult his own judgment, and will no doubt 

 choose the most vigorous. Whelps may be taken from the dam 

 at five or six weeks old, or so soon as they will lap sufficiently. 

 If the sportsman is desirous of rearing more whelps than the 

 dam can conveniently suckle, he must procure a foster-mother. 

 If another bitch happens to pup about the same time, she will 

 adopt strangers, if her own are taken away, particularly if they 

 are rubbed with her own whelps, or her own milk : indeed a 

 bitch will frequently suffer strangers and her own to suck at the 

 same time. It is a bad plan to keep whelps in ^a stable, as 

 they are very liable to be trod upon ; indeed grown dogs are best 

 out of the stable for the same reason. 



When puppies leare the bitch, her teats should be anointed 

 or washed several times, with warm vinegar and brandy. 



My whelps are always reared in the country, and sleep in 

 kennels in the open air, and I have never had a whelp (thus 



