PRACTICAL GREYHOUND BREEDING 87 



With regard to food, it should be varied occasionally : good 

 old hound-meal, carefully and freshly prepared, with an ad- 

 mixture of flesh, and well-soaked biscuits mashed up with beet- 

 root or cabbage, are the staples, and the changes may be rung 

 thereon. Some extravagant breeders think that no greyhound 

 can be put into training with any hope of winning a stake un- 

 less it has been reared on prime joints of mutton and beef ; but 

 this is all rubbish, as good sound horseflesh contains quite 

 sufficient nourishment to develop the bone and muscle of any 

 dog that was ever born. Another useful article of food, when 

 properly combined with the others, is plain suet pudding, and 

 after all it is not a very expensive one, and in rearing grey- 

 hounds, as also blood stock, it never does to economise food, 

 lest we prove penny wise and pound foolish. After our re- 

 marks about beef and mutton, we may appear to contradict 

 ourselves, but in the case of prime joints the extravagance is 

 thrown away and no good purpose is served. 



The danger attached to the rearing to maturity of one's 

 greyhounds is this. We have, so to speak, all our eggs in one 

 basket ; the outbreak of distemper in its most malignant form 

 may have fatal results, and the first victims are sure to be 

 our most cherished youngsters. Moreover, to do the thing pro- 

 perly, quite a staff of servants is required, and, unless these are 

 trustworthy lads and have learnt their duties under a competent 

 master, they will be found as great a trouble to their employer 

 as the young greyhounds are to them. Unless all circum- 

 stances are favourable, it will be as well to send the whelps out 

 to walk at ten weeks old, and let them remain there until 

 they are a year old, or until their delinquencies are so 

 marked that they can no longer be kept in a state of freedom. 

 To puppies reared in this way there are innumerable risks, and 

 the breeder may deem himself fortunate if a third of those sent 

 out are returned to him sound and well. If a sufficient num- 

 ber of ' walkers ' who have any real knowledge of dogs, and of 

 greyhounds in particular, can be found, the risks are minimised, 

 and the puppies fare better at walk than they do at home. 



