FIRST PREPARATION OF THE OVERFED DOG. 313 



travel long distances on the road. This would be an abuse of 

 the plan, and not the proper use of it, and no one but a tyro 

 would dream of such a practice. If a man has only four or five 

 dogs in training, he can manage to bring them out well enough 

 for any country without a horse, but if he has more it will be 

 better to find him one ; and the extra cost incurred, which need not 

 be more than from ten to fifteen shillings per week, will be reim- 

 bursed by the superior success of his dogs, if they are intrinsically 

 good. No training will make a bad greyhound into a good one ; 

 and unless a man has a prospect of possessing the right sort of 

 stuff, he may as well keep down his expenses, but if it appears that 

 his dogs are worth the outlay, no expense should be spared. 



FIRST PREPARATION OF THE OVERFED DOG. 



In the directions which I have given for rearing the puppy, he 

 has been kept in a state which renders him always fit to go 

 into severe work. A fortnight or three weeks' final preparation is 

 all that he requires even for the most severe country, and a 

 week or ten days ought to fit him for average coursing. But the 

 majority of puppies are not thus taken care of. Instead of being 

 only from four or five pounds too heavy, they are ten or fifteen 

 pounds above their proper running weight, and being loaded with 

 fat inside, they would be permanently injured if they were put 

 either to fast work in training, or allowed to rim a course. 

 Such a dog is generally in every way unprepared for running, the 



