278 BEARING, ETC. 



beginning of the sixth month, without any inconvenience greater 

 than a slight loss of appetite and flesh ; but in those which are badly 

 fed, or brought up in dark confined places, this important process 

 is later, and is often attended with fits, or diarrhoea, and general 

 fever. This feverish state is often mistaken for true distemper, 

 and will even go on to produce it if neglected. The best remedy is 

 change of air, plenty of good food, not too heating, and an occa- 

 sional dose of oil. If the liver does not act, or diarrhoea comes on, 

 the remedies already ordered for these complaints should be ad- 

 ministered. 



During the course of the first nine or ten months it is satis- 

 factory to know that your favourites are growing as fast as you 

 could wish, but as they increase in size and weight in a very 

 different ratio at different ages, it is only by experimental weigh- 

 ing that the old hand knows that he is going on well in his 

 breeding stud. If, then, he finds that his whelps do not turn the 

 weight he thinks they should do, and they have had no drawback, 

 he concludes that they are not thriving, and either alters his plan 

 of feeding, &c., or gets rid of them as unlikely to prove profitable 

 to him. The best way to get at the weight of whelps, less than five 

 or six months old, is to put each in a canvas bag (of which the weight 

 can be easily ascertained and deducted), and then hook them by 

 the string of the bag to a pair of steelyards. After six months the 

 same plan may be adopted as with full-grown dogs, which are 

 weighed by different people in different ways ; but the following 

 plan answers the best, and most people have the articles required 

 ready to their hands : The dog is to be suspended by a pair of 



