BE FAIR TO YOUR DOG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

BE FAIR TO YOUR DOG

MAN’S MOST FAITHFUL FRIEND The more I know dogs, the less 1 like people, writes Elizabeth Craig in the Morning Post. There is no pet quite like a dog. No matter how you treat him he will insist on loving you. He is grateful not only for the crumbs that, fall from your table but for the careless caress sometimes too rarely given him. Ho guards you. serves you, and loves you without, question from the moment he wriggles into the world until his last tail wag. You may be unworthy of his affection, but he does not worry. You arc his master, the being he depends on for home, food and love. I wonder how often you repay him. Some people should not be allowed to have dogs. Looking upon them as “only animals,” they treat them as if they were inanimate. Dogs owned by such people arc usually fed at odd moments, exercised never, allowed to run off the leash in roads that are a death-trap and neglected when ill. 1 should like to take the dog whip some owners arc too free with to such as they. If 1 could I would punish the following:— The smart women in town who keep Alsatians and other dogs of that i k and think that ten minutes walk in the park is all the exercise they need. The breeders who tic the dogs' mouths up with cord to prevent them barking when they are trying to tell them something is wrong. The dog owners who take dogs out only when the whim seizes them. They are ail as cruel as the Arabs who slit their donkeys' noses in the belief that because they can breathe better they will be able to live longer; therefore they will be able to work longer, and as an Englishman in the West, who kept a buzzard hawk caged in his hotel grounds, caged so tightly that the bird could touch the bars of his cage when he stretched his wings, to attract visitors. Puppies for Children If I had the time to make a profession of breeding dogs there is another person I would refuse to sell a pup to. and that is the man or woman who wants a pup for a child. Children are unconsciously cruel, and many a puppy has been injured for life by a child. I would also steer clear of purchasers my dogs refused to meet. For a dog knows when you really like animals and soon reciprocates any innate dislike on the part of a purchaser, even though you may not notice it. Given any dog, there is only one way to treat it fairly, and that is to treat it as you would a child. It should be fed regularly every day, taken out and exercised regularly, housed warmly, and looked after not only when ill but all the time, so that illness can be prevented when possible. Some owners make a habit of running to a veterinary surgeon as soon as Fido sneezes or shows a watery eye. Better to do that than have an ill dog on your hands. But if you saw that your pet slept in a warm corner, free from all draughts, and gave him a coat to wear in frosty weather, and dried him thoroughly after a walk in the rain, ho would not catch a cold so easily.