190 REARING. 



and good. For small breeds any little house dog will suffice, tak- 

 ing care that the skin is healthy, and that the constitution is not 

 impaired by confinement or gross feeding. Greyhound puppies 

 are very commonly reared by bull-bitches without any disadvan- 

 tage, clearly proving the propriety of the plan. It may generally 

 be reckoned, in fixing the number which a bitch can suckle with 

 advantage, that, of greyhound or pointer puppies, for every seven 

 pounds in her own weight the bitch can nurse one ; so that an aver- 

 age bull-terrier will rear three, her weight being about twenty one 

 pounds, and smaller dogs in proportion. When the substitution 

 is to be made, the plan is to proceed as follows : Get a warm 

 basket, put in it some of the litter in which the bitch and her 

 whelps have been lying, then take away all her own progeny, and 

 put all in the basket, together with the whelps to be fostered, mix- 

 ing them so that the skins of the fresh ones shall be in contact with 

 the bitch's own pups, and also with the litter. Let them remain in 

 this way for three hours, during which time the bitch should be 

 taken out for an hour's walk, when her teats will have become pain- 

 fully distended with milk. Then put all the pups in her nest, and, 

 carefully watching her, let her go back to them. In ninety-nine 

 cases out of a hundred, she will at once allow them all to suck 

 quietly, and if she licks all alike, she may be left with them safely 

 enough ; but if she passes the fresh ones over, pushing them 

 one side, she should be muzzled for twelve hours, leaving all with 

 her, and keeping the muzzle on excepting while she is fed, or 

 watched until she is observed to lick all alike. On the next day, all 

 but one of her own puppies may be withdrawn, with an interval 

 of one hour or two between each two, taking care that she 

 does not see what is done. After two days the last may also be 

 taken away, and then she acts to her foster-puppies in every way 

 the same as to her own. Some people squeeze a little of the bitch's 

 milk out of her teats, and rub this over the puppies, but I have 

 never seen any advantage in the plan, and, as I have never had 

 any difficulty in getting puppies adopted, I do not recommend any 

 other than that I have described. In most cases the foster-bitch 

 is strange to those about her, having been brought from her own 



