October, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
443 
KEEPING 
YOUR DOG 
IN 
GOOD 
CONDITION 
A LITTLE ATTENTION GIVEN TO THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF YOUR HUNTING 
DOG NOW WILL OBVIATE MUCH DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN YOU GO AFIELD 
T HE genesis of a fat dog— which 
oftentimes is equivalent to an un- 
healthy dog, or at least to the 
early stages of unhealthfulness — 
ies in the mistaken sympathy and kind- 
less of the owner, or of the members of 
lis household. There is a general ab- 
sence of knowledge concerning the dog’s 
ictual needs in respect to a food supply. 
Hence he is overfed. Many times more 
ood than his actual needs are daily be- 
stowed on him. 
As a rule the dog constitutes himself 
in alert but humble hanger-on at all 
amily meals, and he is reliably upon the 
spot between meals when there is a 
irobability of food. His hungry glare 
>f eye and beseeching manner at meal 
ime win him many tit-bits from the 
amily during that time. In addition 
le, besides having three good meals a 
lay, is the recipient of many palatable 
mtritious morsels between meals. Also 
he ladies, out of sympathy for the silent 
nterminable appeal for food, usually see 
hat the dog has his portion of cake, 
lie, ice cream, sugar, candy, etc., all of 
vhich tickle his palate and shorten his 
ife. The dog doesn’t know it. 
In passing, it may be remarked that no 
log, however valued or valuable, should 
ie tolerated in the dining-room. He has 
nany filthy habits, and, while he is a 
jood friend of man, he is also an or- 
ganism of many dangers. It may be 
loted also that if the dog is kept out of 
he dining-room, or even out of the 
louse, his friendship will remain quite 
mimpaired, for even at that, man is the 
iest friend the dog ever had. While all 
logs suffer many hardships from being 
iver-fat, the working dogs — setters and 
lointers — are specially prone to afflic- 
ions. The over-fatness also impairs 
heir value. 
By nature, the dog is a glutten. He 
>vill eat all he can hold, and if he ob- 
By RODNEY RANDOM 
serves another dog eating, he will oust 
the eating dog and then eat some more. 
His stomach, relative to his size, is cap- 
able of enormous distension, and there- 
fore has a corresponding food capacity. 
His powers of digestion are active and 
comprehensive. If by chance he should 
gorge too sumptuously, he simply vom- 
its, straightens up, and is ready to eat 
again. 
In a wild state this unlimited capacity 
for gluttony served him a good purpose, 
inasmuch as he had an uncertain supply 
of food. It was then useful to lay in a 
full supply when opportunity offered. 
Like his brother, the wolf, he lived often 
either in feast or famine, though the 
former might be a matter of minutes, 
while the latter was a matter of days. 
He might be gorged to-day and lank 
and empty for several days thereafter, 
yet in a wild state the dog is incom- 
parably more capable of prolonged effort 
in fighting his enemies, in pursuing his 
prey or in fleeing from danger. This 
gluttony so beneficial from the circum- 
stances of a wild state of life, when ex- 
ercised in the state of domesticity, where 
the supply of food is regular and perma- 
nently assured, is unnecessary and out of 
place. 
Although carnivorous, the dog can eat 
and digest certain kinds of vegetable 
food; less perfectly, it is true, than he 
can digest meat, but still quite sufficiently 
digested to sustain life and effort. Thus 
in domesticity it is not good judgment 
to permit the domestic dog to indulge 
his wild gluttonous appetite. It is torture 
to a dog to see others eat if denied a 
portion or all for himself, therefore if 
for no other reason than for the dog’s 
own comfort, he should be barred from 
the presence of the family at meal time, 
if sanitary reasons are not considered of 
sufficient importance so to bar him. 
I N field work it is a fair assumption 
that, for every mile walked by the 
shooter, the dog gallops ten or more. 
Also, the going is rough. In a way the 
exertion in hunting is the counterpart of 
the dog’s life in nature ; therefore there 
is a requirement for sufficient good food 
to supply his bodily needs. This violent, 
prolonged exertion prohibits the accum- 
ulation of fat. The dog becomes lean, 
lank, strong, alert, enduring, etc. ; in 
short, much as he would be in a wild 
state, physically. Morally, the dog never 
becomes wholly domesticated. He re- 
verts to a wild state quickly and wholly 
when the conditions favor it. When they 
only partly favor it, then he is as wild 
as opportunity permits. The country dog 
roams over the farm, prowling along 
fences, walls, hedges, timber lands, etc., 
for such prey as he may safely kill. If 
he can join forces with some neighbor- 
ing cur or curs, the excursions are likely 
to include a wide area and a longer 
time, perhaps days. They thus enjoy as 
much as possible all the delights of 
savagery. They return to their homes 
for rest as they would return to their 
lair in a wild state. On opportunity, 
they sneak away again and again to 
self hunt. In the city, the environment 
is not favorable for an indulgence of 
their prowling instinct, yet vagrant and 
prowling dogs are not uncommon. 
But, as to fatness. The wise shooter 
gives his dog one, and only one, good 
full meal per day ; all the dog can eat. 
This is given in the evening after the 
day’s sport is over. The dog would eat 
another large meal for breakfast and 
yet another at midday if opportunity 
offered ; but then he would be practically 
worthless as a seeker and finder of game 
- — first because he could exert himself 
but moderately with a loaded stomach 
and second, because if he could do so. 
( Continued on page 479) 
