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are weakened, the heart is slowed, and the 
brain is rendered dull. It is from amongst 
dogs who are kept constantly in the house 
or in badly-ventilated kennels that most 
ailments originate. 
3. Impure water is the cause of many 
diseases, including skin complaints, and 
some forms of internal parasites, whose 
larvee may have found their way into such 
water. 
4. Cleanliness of the dog’s coat is essen- 
tial to health. There is no rule as to how 
often a dog should be washed. As a 
general thing, say, once a month or three 
weeks. It should be done very thoroughly 
when it is done; the best of soap is essen- 
tial. Spratt’s Patent have all kinds, and 
I know they are good, but their finer sorts 
should be used for Toy and other house 
dogs. Good drying, without too much 
rubbing, a bit of food immediately after 
the washing, then a run on the grass, 
another rub down, and off to kennel and 
to sleep. 
5. Prevent disease also by keeping the 
dog-dishes, the dog’s bedding, his collar, 
his clothing, and even his leading-strap 
scrupulously clean. 
6. Prevent it by extra care when at a 
dog show. See that the bench is clean, 
and those adjoining his. Many a splendid 
specimen contracts a fatal ailment at such 
shows, and this, perhaps, from no fault 
of those in charge of the benches. Don’t 
let your specimens make acquaintance with 
any strange dog while leading him in or 
out of the show hall or round the exercise 
ground. Don’t cuddle strange dogs your- 
self, or you may bring distemper to your 
own at a show. 
7. Prevent disease by open-air exercise. 
Swimming is one of the best forms of this. 
So is racing or chasing on the grass after 
a piece of stick or a ball. 
8. Prevent disease (going thin, worms, 
etc.) in puppies by seeing to it that the 
dam’s whelping bed is perfectly clean, and 
that she herself has been washed in tepid 
water and rinsed with tepid water (not cold) 
a week before her time. A single flea or 
dog-louse (in which some species of worms 
spend their intermediate stage), if swal- 
lowed by a puppy, may cost the little thing 
its life or its constitution. The worms so 
THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 
bred suck the blood or juices of the in- 
testines, the puppy gets thin, and is liable 
to rickets and many other troubles, of 
which skin ailments, though bad enough, 
are not the worst. 
9. Prevent disease in puppies after they 
are weaned by feeding five times a day at 
least—early in the morning and last thing 
at night—on well selected diet, and always 
boil the milk they drink, because a flea 
or louse drowned in it might give rise to 
worms, and, independently of this, milk 
may be laden with evil germs. A Spratt’s 
puppy biscuit given to gnaw will do good 
when the pup is old enough—it helps the 
milk teeth. Biscuits should be given dry 
to all dogs, if they will take them, and 
hunger is sweet sauce. Dry biscuits clean 
the teeth. 
10. In the prevention of diseases the sun 
is a most powerful agent. You cannot 
keep a dog healthy unless you arrange his 
kennel so that he can have a sunshine bath 
as often as possible. Dogs delight to bask 
in the sunshine and fresh air. 
11. Rabies, or canine madness, is an un- 
known disease when dogs have freedom 
and are never muzzled. This was never 
more completely exemplified than during 
the mad dog scare in England a few years 
ago. In Edinburgh and other northern 
cities, where dogs were free to roam un- 
muzzled, there was no rabies, spurious or 
real, and no panic among the people. 
12. Prevent disease by bedding the out- 
door dog well and giving shelter summer 
and winter, and by never chaining a dog 
under a cart in motion, or letting him run 
after a bicycle. 
Poisons and their Antidotes.—Whether 
as the result of accident or by evil design, 
dogs are exceedingly liable to suffer from 
poisoning. Independently of either acci- 
dent or design, the animal is sometimes 
poisoned by his owner unwisely adminis- 
tering to him drugs in too large doses. 
Poison is often put down to rats and mice, 
and in a form, too, which is usually just 
as palatable to the house-dog as to the 
vermin. There are so many ingenious 
traps nowadays sold for the catching of 
mice and other vermin that really the 
practice of poisoning rats should seldom be 
resorted to. 
