Beagles and Beagling 
120 
old, no matter what the breed, that I have ever 
encountered, though no doubt there are others just 
as efficacious. 
Weaning and Feeding the Puppies 
For the first three weeks the mother has sole 
charge of the puppies, but if the litter is a large 
one and the youngsters are becoming too great a 
burden for her, it is well to give her some assistance 
bv beginning to do some supplementary feeding. 
That is, I do not mean that the puppies should be 
weaned at this early age, but much of the care may 
be taken from the mother if they are fed two or 
three times a day. The best plan is to scald the 
milk and place it in a large, flat pan or shallow 
vessel. After it has cooled, bring the puppies up to 
it, dip their noses into it a few times and it will 
be noticed how readily they will lick the liquid off. 
By repeating this a time or two, they will soon 
learn to lap the milk. This supplementary feeding 
may be continued until the puppies are seven or 
eight weeks old, when it is time to wean them 
entirely ; for it will be observed that the constant 
attentions which the mother has been bestowing 
upon them becomes more lax as the weeks pass. 
Indeed, the puppies are large enough now as to 
become irksome to the mother, when they come 
clawing her for sustenance, and she frequently 
remains away from them for hours at a time. How¬ 
ever, if they have been started to lap milk at three 
or four weeks old, it is an easy matter to take the 
mother away entirelv. 
