326 TRAINING. 



dog, for if the bitch is not much pulled down by a large litter, and 

 does not suckle more than one or two whelps, she recovers 

 herself completely in three weeks after pupping. When it is 

 desired to run a bitch as soon as possible after having had a 

 litter, it is better to keep one whelp on her for a fortnight, when 

 she may safely be dried and at once put into slow work. 



MODES OF REDUCING FAT. 



I need scarcely inform my readers that fat is laid up in the 

 body in store for future exigencies, and is of no present use what- 

 ever. Hence it is so much dead weight to be carried by the animal 

 which possesses it, and it is one chief object of the trainer to get 

 rid of it as far as possible, since it not only interferes with speed 

 from its weight, but also by its direct pressure upon those im- 

 portant organs of circulation, the heart and lungs. There are three 

 modes of getting rid of fat, all of which act by compelling Nature 

 to fall back upon this substance, when she is called upon in an 

 unusually sudden manner to find materials to supply waste of 

 blood, or some of its component parts. These are : first, physic ; 

 secondly, starvation; and thirdly, work. 



By physic is to be understood purgative drugs, which act by 

 suddenly draining certain portions of the blood into the bowels. 

 In this way a demand is made upon the storehouses of the body 

 for the supply of material to fill up the void, and fat being the 



