506 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



of his kennel, scraps of mutton, beef, or goat meat, 

 stewed with cabbage, onions, beets, turnips, and other 

 vegetables observing that all are strictly sound and 

 good make an excellent food during the idle months. 

 When a dog is used for field work the food should 

 be almost wholly meat. Sheep's heads and tripe make 

 an excellent food, preferably in a stew. The former 

 should be skinned, and boiled till the bones can be 

 readily removed from the flesh. Corn meal, though 

 quite commonly used, is one of the poorest of dog 

 foods, much of it being undigested, as can readily be 

 known by an examination of the dog's droppings. 



For working dogs, one feed after the day's work 

 is ended is quite sufficient. They then should have all 

 that they will eat. If fed in the morning, digestion 

 is suspended while the dog is ranging about, and he 

 is carrying with him the equivalent of so much dead 

 weight, with no nutritive qualities for the time being. 



If fed on a meat diet when working, the dog is al- 

 most exempt from bowel troubles, while if fed much 

 corn meal such troubles are frequent. For the latter 

 there is no better or prompter remedy than lean beef, 

 cut into small pieces, and heated through in a hot oven, 

 thus being only blood rare. 



If a dog's stomach is loaded when he is at work his 

 powers of scent are seriously impaired. It matters not 

 whether he is fed on meat or vegetables. Nature has 

 wisely provided that while digestion is in progress the 

 dog's sense of smell is dulled. Even man, whose sense 

 of smell is incomparably inferior to that of the dog, 



