Do You Keep a Dog,?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 9 (Supplement)

Do You Keep a Dog,?

are among tho most sensitive of animals, their feelings being easily hurt and their spirits being easily raised or depressed. Loud words and harsh language startle and depress them, their sense of hearing is usually much more sensitive than ours, and their sense of smell is so much more sensitive that we can hardly understand it. Like all animals, dogs know much more than tbey aro believed to know by anybody except those who love and understand them, and feel their treatment, whether kind or harsh, much more keenly than most people think. Tho best way to keep a dog that needs restraint is to put him in a yard with a high fenco. If this is

not practicable fasten a wire across any yard; on this put an iron ring which, when attached by a cord to tho dog's collar, will allow him to run backward and forward, the full length of the wire. Oue man had a rope twenty feet long on a ring which could slip 011 a wire about thirty feet long stretched between two trees. The yard ought to have shade as well as sunshine to protect the dog from too great heat of tho sun. Be sure that your dog has always access to fresh water to drink; keep it in a clean dish, and see that it is frequently changed. Do not allow his food to bo prepared in a careless, slovenly manner. A dog house should be made with a partition running nearly across it, behind which ho will bo protected from tho wind. It should also bo raised a few inches from the ground to prevent dampness, which is 0110 cause of mange, and of the diseaso called " kennel lameness." There should be a sliding panel in the back of the house to let in the sun and air when the kennel needs ventilation and drying. Give your dog clean straw or excelsior, or better still, clean pine shavings for his bed. No dog house is warm enough for a short-haired dog in cold weather. Ho should by all means sleep in the house or the barn. A St. Bernard or collie, if he has been accustomed to sleeping out of doors, may be made comfortable in cold weather, providing tho dog house

is well built and well furnished with straw or other bedding. It is certainly more merciffil during cold weather to let your dog sleep in the house, where he is also a better guard against burglars. To allow a dog to lie close before a hot fire during the day and then to turn him into a cold place at night, is the Way to court pneumonia or bronchitis. CHAINED IN THE YARD 'Twas only a dog in a fcennel, And little the noise he made, But it seemed to me, as I heard it, I knew what that old dog said. " Another long, day to get overt Will nobody loosen my chain. Just for a run round the meadow, Then fasten me up again?' " What's left in my trough is all stagnant. Matted with tufts of hair; My kennel is littered and filthy, I'd rather my £cnneZ Was bare." " Bones I why I heartily loathe them I Nothing but bones and meat, Till I hate my existence, and envy The dogs that starve in the street." 4 Give me my old life of freedom, Give me a plunge and a swim, A dash and a dive in the river, A shake and a splash on the brim." I patted his head and spoke kindly, I thought that his case was hard; Oh! give him a run in the open, Your dog chained up in the yard.