116 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



teeth, begin to drop out, and are replaced by the permanent 

 set, which change is complete between the sixth and seventh 

 month. The tusks have acquired their full length about the 

 twelfth or thirteenth month. At about two years old, a 

 yellow circle makes its appearance around the base of the 

 tusks, which gradually develops itself, with more and more 

 intensity, until the third year. About this time you will 

 find the edges of the front, or cutting teeth, begin to be worn 

 down, and the little nick on the crown of the lateral incisors 

 to disappear. As the fourth year approaches, the tusks lose 

 their points, and the teeth present a gradual progress of de- 

 cay, until the fifth or sixth year, when the incisors begin to 

 fall, and the tusks become discolored over their entire surface. 

 The sixth or seventh year finds the dog less lively than of 

 old ; he is evidently no longer young ; as soon as his eighth 

 year has passed away, a few gray hairs show themselves 

 around his eyes, and at the corners of the mouth. These 

 appearances increase in intensity to the eleventh or twelfth 

 year, when actual decrepitude usually sets in, and increases 

 so rapidly, that by the fourteenth year, if the animal survive 

 so long, he is a nuisance to himself and all with whom he 

 comes in contact ; sares break out in different parts of his 

 body, his whole carcass emits a fetid smell, and it is with 

 difficulty he can drag his aged limbs along: it is, then, a 

 source of congratulation when death comes in, and releases 

 him from his sufferings. 



DEWCLAWS. 



It frequently happens that puppies are born with a fifth toe 

 upon the hind foot; this is called a dewclaw. It is usually 

 only a false toe, possessing no connection with the bony struc- 

 ture of the limb ; but, in any case, should be taken off. Mr. 

 Youatt calls the practice an inhuman one, and seems to think 

 that this claw is seldom any hinderance to the dog. I see no 

 great inhumanity in it ; for if it be done at the proper age 

 viz., between the third and fourth week the operation is 

 scarcely felt by the pup, and the tongue of the dam soon heals 

 the wound. Let it also be properly done, with a pair of large, 

 sharp scissors ; let the pup be firmly held by one person, while 

 a second operates, and let the operator feel for the proper 

 place to cut, and also not be nervous, but do his work with 

 decision. The dewclaws, when left on, are constantly com- 

 ing in the way, getting entangled in grass or roots, and 



