130 BRINGING UP PUPPIES 



suffer ; they also become shy and fooHsh, and will bear 

 no comparison with those who have roughed it, even at 

 poor quarters, as to hardihood and symmetry of form. 

 No puppies should be kept in confinement after they are 

 three months old, and my general practice was to send 

 them from the kennels much earlier. 



As soon as whelps can eat they should have either milk 

 or thin lap, made from boiled oatmeal or scalded barley- 

 meal, and broth of some sort mixed with it. Oatmeal 

 requires boihng for an hour, and is not only better but 

 cheaper food for dogs of all kinds than barley-meal ; but 

 as the latter is more generally used for setters, spaniels, 

 and pointers, I will point out how Masters may ascertain 

 whether this meal has been properly prepared or not, the 

 manner in which it should be scalded being of the first 

 importance. The dry meal should be placed in a bucket 

 (or pan, where two or three dogs only are to be fed) and 

 boiling water poured upon it — warm water will have no 

 effect — stirring it the while, and then left to stand, covered 

 over, for at least half an hour before it is used, after which 

 it may be broken up and reduced to a proper consistency 

 with skim milk or broth, mixed with meat. Now any 

 Master may easily discover whether the barley-meal has 

 been duly prepared or not by this test : if properly scalded 

 it will be of a dark colour, sticky, and difficult to mix up ; 

 but if warm water only has been used, the meal will be of 

 a light colour and of little consistency ; and as " the proof 

 of the pudding is in the eating," great attention must be 

 paid to this particular point, or a double quantity will be 

 used, and the dogs suffer as well as the Master's pocket. 



In kennels of fox-hounds barley-meal is seldom used 

 now-a-days, but harriers are still fed upon it ; and where 

 a boiler is used, the barley-meal should be poured by 



