238 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
dogs are extremely fastidious as to what they drink, far 
more so than as to what they eat, and although thirst will 
compel them to drink from any puddle, they suffer much 
from doing so both in comfort and condition. 
Frequent bathing in hot weather is of inestimable utility 
and comfort to these hot-blooded creatures, and the way in 
which even those short-coated varieties, which are supposed 
to be the least addicted to it, enjoy a swim, and continue 
half immersed for hours in succession, proves the necessity 
of it more than could be done by volumes of writing. 
No less than pure air and pure water, superadded to 
wholesome food, exercise is needful to dogs. 
For those who live in the country, where space is of 
little consequence, it is decidedly advisable to let the dogs 
run at large in a court of twenty to forty feet square, in 
which are their respective houses, in lieu of chaining each 
to his several kennel, and where this can pe done the ani- 
mals can get along with less road work. 
Nevertheless, dogs are vastly the better in any case 
for an hour or two of exercise daily on the road. Before 
the shooting season commences, if they be, as they ought, 
full in flesh and somewhat high in condition, they are 
greatly improved by a fast run, after horses or a wagon, 
of five, ten, or as they improve in wind and hardness, 
twenty miles. 
Such work, particularly on hard roads, hardens their 
feet, and renders them capable of threefold endurance; 
expands and invigorates their breathing apparatus, hard- 
ens their flesh, and enables them to go through double the 
amount of labor, without the annoyance or suffering, which 
