102 General Management of the Dog 
with a man on horseback once or twice a week on the road. 
Very little flesh should be given them, which is only 
wanted when they have severe work, and can seldom then 
be procured. Greaves, with meal, and occasionally pota- 
toes, form the best food; carrots, cabbages, or turnips 
should be given once or twice a week ; and a dose or two 
of castor oil, salts, or jalap will do good two or three times 
in the summer, or an aloetic ball. 
Management of Whelps. 
Coursing will equally apply to other sporting dogs. 
Few people will take the full amount of trouble which 
should be bestowed on whelps, but it will suffice if the 
whelps are sent into the country to be reared at the 
butcher's, or the tanner’s, or at the small wayside public 
house. When milk or buttermilk can be obtained, it is a - 
good article to rear all whelps upon; but it is seldom 
afforded to ordinary dogs. The accidents likely to occur 
in whelping are alluded to in the part on the diseases of 
the dog. 
Dressing. 
Dressing with a mixture of sulphur and train oil is very 
generally adopted every year with sporting dogs, and if 
they are mismanaged in their feeding, it is absolutely neces- 
sary; if, however, they are clean in their skins, it is not 
required. Soft soap and soda kills their fleas, and white 
precipitate, ticks ; but the latter should only be used with 
a muzzle on, to guard against its being taken into the 
stomach by the tongue. Carbolic acid, diluted with twenty 
or thirty times its bulk of water, likewise kills fleas, but it 
also requires a muzzle. 
Kennels. 
Sporting dogs, as, for example, pointers or setters, are 
often kept in such numbers as to require a kennel or ken- 
nels. When such is the case, an open yard paved with 
glazed tiles or blue bricks must be added, but it is better 
not covered in. The lodging-room must be in proportion 
to the number of dogs, but it is better not to have more 
