The Dog

The dog that neglects its day's allowance should not be coaxed to feed, but ought to be left alone for some minutes, or until its companions have finished their meal. It should then be examined, and if nothing can be detected, perhaps the abstinence of a day may restore it. Until the proper hour arrives on the following day, nothing ought to be given to the animal, nor should any inclination on its part for food be noticed.

Where eating is concerned, dogs have lively sympathies. The animal which at its own kennel has feasted to satiety, will wake from its digestive slumber to taste anything of which it sees its master partaking. These creatures are so peculiarly sensitive in this respect, that they will do violence to their feelings rather than be left out when eating is going forward. Dogs moreover are most pertinacious beggars, and they soon learn the cunning of the trade. On no account should they be permitted to frequent the kitchen. If properly reared, they will be rigidly honest, but, like the "audacious cats," they offer a ready excuse to dishonest kitchen-maids, who will sometimes do injury by subjecting the animal to undeserved chastisement.

Where the servants are trustworthy this danger will not arise; but good servants mostly have tender hearts, and dogs have a peculiar tact in appealing to female weaknesses. However strict may be the orders, and however sincere may be the disposition to observe them, bits will fall, – scraps will be thrown down, – dishes will be placed upon the ground, and sometimes affection will venture to offer just "the little piece," which no one could call feeding. It is astonishing how much will in this way be picked up, for the dog that lies most before the kitchen fire is generally the fattest, laziest, and at feeding time the best behaved of his company. Consequently no dog should be allowed to enter the kitchen, for their arts in working upon mortal frailty can only be met by insisting on their absence. The dog that is well fed and not crammed, should not refuse bread when it is offered. If this be rejected, while sugar is eagerly snapped up, it will be pretty certain that the animal is either too much indulged, or that its health requires attention.

Some writers recommend pot-liquor for dogs. It is not advisable to use this. The water in which salt meat has been boiled ought never to be employed. Greens are not nutritious, but they often purge; and if the animal will eat them, they can sometimes be given when liver cannot be obtained. Potatoes will, with other substances, agree with animals not required for work, but the rice I have recommended will be found for general purposes the best, and not the most expensive food upon which the animal can be sustained. Persons having lap-dogs will moreover find the keep upon rice, properly seasoned, or soaked in gravy, less liable to render these creatures strong or tainted than the provender which is choicely selected from the joint provided for the family dinner. The warm meat too often presented to these creatures is apt to enfeeble their digestions; for their stomachs are soon deranged, and they never should be allowed to taste any kind of food which is not perfectly cold.

The food for diseased dogs should be prepared with extreme care, and no disregard of cleanliness; in fact, it should in every respect be such as a human being could partake of, provided the ingredients were not repugnant to his taste. Sickness cannot be relieved without trouble, and in many cases an animal requires as much attention as a child. To gain success, neither time, labor, nor expense must be begrudged; but the attendant must be assiduous and the cook skilful. Nothing smoked or burnt, no refuse or tainted flesh, must on any account be made use of. The meat may be coarse, but it should be fresh and wholesome. Dirty saucepans or dishes ought not to be employed; and so very important are these circumstances, that the practitioner who engages in dog practice will often surprise his acquaintances by being seen at market, or busied over the fire. Beef tea is one of the articles which in extreme cases is of great service. Few servants, however, make it properly, and when a dog is concerned there are fewer still who will credit that any pains should be bestowed upon the decoction. I generally either prepare it myself or superintend the person who undertakes that office, and not unfrequently give serious offence by my officiousness; or, spite of studious attention, fail in procuring that which I desire. Still, as in the last extremity food is even of more importance than medicine, my anxiety cannot be conquered by such schooling, and I am therefore content to bear the sneers of those who cannot understand my motives.

To make beef-tea properly, take a pound and a half of coarse, lean beef: that cut from the neck or round is best. The leg does not answer so well, however excellent it may be for soup. The rump steak is good for the purpose, but no better than other and cheaper parts; though I often use it when nothing else can be obtained so well suited for this beverage. Let the flesh be carefully separated from every portion of skin or fat, and chopped as fine as for sausage meat – the smaller the better – it cannot be too minutely minced. Without washing it, put the flesh into a clean saucepan, with a pint of water, and so place it upon the fire that it will be half an hour at least before it boils. When it boils, allow it to remain in that state for ten minutes, and then remove it, pouring off the liquor, which should be set aside to cool. When cold, any fat upon the surface should be removed, and, no salt or seasoning of any kind being added, the beef-tea is fit for use.

To the meat, which has been drained of moisture, the skin and fat may now be added and a pint and a half of water, which should be allowed to boil till it is reduced to a pint. This being set aside and afterwards cleared of fat, will be of some service if used instead of water when the next potion is required; and there is no limitation in the quantity which may be needed.

Besides beef-tea, wheaten flour, oatmeal, arrow-root, starch, biscuit powdered, and ground rice are also to be employed. These are to be mixed with water, or more often with beef-tea, and boiled; but for sick animals the compound should not be made too thick. The ordinary consistence of gruel will be about the proper substance, and a little only should be administered every hour or half-hour, as the case may require. From half a pint to a quart, divided so as to allow of a portion being given at the stated periods, will be sufficient for a large or small animal, the quantity being proportioned to the size. When the creature is so far exhausted that it is no longer willing or able to lap, the nourishment should be administered by means of a tube passed down the throat or into the œsophagus; for if given with a spoon, as the breathing is always disturbed, the consequence may be fatal, from the fluid being drawn into the lungs. The food should always be made fresh every morning; and none left from the previous day ought on any account to be mixed with it, more especially if the weather be at all warm.

These directions may to some appear needlessly particular; but so rapid are the terminations of canine diseases, and so acute are they in their development, that while the tax upon the patience is not likely to be of long duration, the care demanded during their existence must be unremitting.

Exercise is next to food, and if of one dogs generally have too much, of the other few have enough. In towns, if dogs are kept, a chain and collar should always be at hand. The servants should be ordered to take the creatures out whenever they go upon their errands, and an occasional free journey with the master will be a treat which will be the more enjoyed because of the habit thus enforced.

Washing dogs is not a custom deserving of half the consideration which is bestowed upon it. The operation is not so necessary as it is generally imagined. Soap and water make the hair look white; but the coat usually becomes soiled the quicker because of their employment.

The use of alkalies, soda, or potash, in the water, renders the immediate effects more conspicuous; but unfortunately these substances also make the after-consequences more vexatious. They take the sebaceous or unctuous secretion from the coat. The skin is deprived of its natural protector in this animal; the cuticle grows weak and dry. The hair is rendered rough; is prepared to catch the dirt; and not unfrequently the skin itself, by nature striving to counteract the effect of its deprivation, pours forth a secretion that aids in causing it to appear foul. Above all, the warmth, so repeatedly and often inhumanly applied to the entire surface of the body, debilitates the system of the creature, and generates in the long run certain disease, even if by the drying immediate disorder be not engendered. The warm-bath to the dog is peculiarly debilitating, and the heat which the hand of a cook would endure with a sense of comfort, will sometimes cause the dog to faint. Panting is a sign of sensible weakness in this animal, and few of these creatures are washed without exhibiting it. If washing is insisted upon, the water should never be warm, and in cold weather only should the chill be taken off. The soap ought to be of the mildest quality; but the yelk of an egg is much to be preferred, and in its effects is every way more beneficial where the hair, either of man or beast must be cleansed. A small dog will require the yelk of one egg; and a Newfoundland the yelks of a dozen eggs. The yelks are to be separated from the whites and smeared well into the hair. A little water is then to be poured upon the back, and the hand is to be rubbed upon the coat till a lather covers the body, after which the hair may be cleared by copious ablutions. This process is much to be preferred, and the dog dislikes it far less than when soaps are employed. His eyes are not made to smart, or his skin to burn, and if he tastes the substance he does not therefore sicken. Moreover, when the business is ended, even if some portion of the egg should cling to his hair he will not on that account neglect his personal appearance. The coat will be found to look bright, and to remain clean for a longer period than after the adoption of the customary thoughtless process.

Washing, however, is not constantly required, if a dog be kept combed and brushed every morning, and does not reside in a very filthy locality. A little dirt after a walk is easily removed, if it be allowed to dry perfectly, and the hair is then rubbed and picked by the hand of its attendant, when the comb will complete the proceeding. A bath every morning does the generality of dogs good; but it should be cold, and the animal ought not to be punished by having its head submerged. It should be plunged up to the neck, the head being held above the surface. While in the water the coat should be well rubbed with the hand, that every portion of the hair may become thoroughly soaked. This over, no attempt should be made to dry the dog, for that is not by any industry to be perfectly accomplished. Neither ought the dog to be wrapped up, placed before the fire, or suffered to lie about, which it is always by a sense of discomfort induced to do, if not made to move. The animal ought immediately to be started for a scamper, and never allowed to remain quiescent until its activity has driven every trace of moisture from its body. Not until this is thoroughly effected should the creature be brought in-doors, or be suffered to rest for a moment. If healthy it will require little exertion on its attendant's part to make it jump and run about; but some of these little animals have to carry a burthen of fat which no sense of uneasiness can provoke them to move under of their free wills. An active lad with a chain may, in these last cases, be of much use; but he should be told to exercise his charge in some spot open to the master's eye, else the boy may play while the animal shivers.

Some dogs show a great dislike to, strenuously fighting with, the collar and chain; others will exhibit the most piteous distress, by squatting upon their hocks, and whining, while they pant vehemently, and look imploringly up to the face of their leader. The first are probably not aware of the intention of the bonds to which they are subjected, and should not be harshly rebuked. The voice ought to assure them, and means be resorted to calculated to allay their fears. Gentleness and firmness will in two or three days render such animals perfectly submissive for ever after. The last kind are rank impostors. No one not familiar with these animals would credit the arts which they can with such excellent effect and apparent genuineness practise to gain their ends. They have been used to be carried, and they prefer riding in the arms of a human being. Their insinuating tricks ought to be rewarded only by laughter, accompanied with an admonition.

Dogs are very intelligent. They understand much more than men choose to give them credit for. Their pride is enormous, and through this feeling they are easily moved. Laughter, when directed against himself, no dog can endure, and the slightest reprimand is always answered by an immediate change of aspect. Rather than have their dignity offended, dogs will quickly become honest, especially when deceit is experienced to be of no avail. People who are physiognomists may detect this sentiment impressed upon the countenance. Upon the next page is a portrait of a Mastiff. Mark the absolute Asiatic dignity, only outwardly slurred over by a heedlessness of behaviour. Does it not seem as though the creature, through very pride reposing upon strength, was above forms? Who could think of laughing at such gravity? Would it not be like ridiculing nature to insult one who has such outward claims to our respect?

Sporting dogs will always take the exercise that is beneficial, and for such the cold bath is much to be recommended. Only in skin diseases should the tepid bath be resorted to. It is of much service when the skin is hot and inflamed, but after it, exercise ought not to be neglected. For healthy animals the hot or warm bath should never be employed; but the sea is frequently as beneficial to dogs as to their owners; only always bearing in mind that the head should be preserved dry.

Vermin often are very troublesome to dogs, and I have known these animals destroyed because their owners were ignorant of the process by which the annoyance might have been readily conquered. There are many powerful drugs recommended by different writers to effect this end; but though all of them are sufficiently potent to annihilate the parasite, most of them are also strong enough to kill the dog. When fleas are numerous, the dog must be taken from the place where it has been accustomed to sleep. The bed must be entirely removed, and the kennel sluiced – not merely washed – with boiling water, after which it ought to be painted over with spirits of turpentine. The dog itself ought to be washed with eggs and water, as before directed; but with the yelk of every egg a teaspoonful of spirits of turpentine should be blended. After this, the animal should have pine shavings to sleep upon, and if these are frequently renewed, the annoyance will seldom be again complained of. As, however, exceptional cases will always start up, should the tribe not be entirely dispersed, the washing must be repeated; or if from want of time or other cause it be inconvenient to renew that operation, a little powdered camphor rubbed into the coat will mostly abate and often eradicate the nuisance.

Lice often cover the body of the dog, and especially crowd upon its head around the eyes and lips. There need be no dread of their presence, since these vermin will not live upon the human being, though similar to the kind which will. When they are perceived, the dog should be carried into some place in which grease stains are not of much consequence. It ought then to be covered with castor oil till the hair is completely saturated. In this state it should be allowed to remain at least twelve hours, at the expiration of which time the oil may be removed with yelk of eggs and water: only an additional number of eggs will be required. As to the quantity of castor oil which may be necessary, a moderate-sized dog with a long coat will require about a pound, and a large Newfoundland four times that amount. The process, as might be anticipated, operates upon the bowels; but I have never found it to do so with any dangerous power; on the contrary, the laxative effect is generally in these cases beneficial.

Medicine to the dog requires to be administered with caution. The nostrums which are so particularly recommended by grooms and farriers ought never to be made use of. The veterinary surgeon is less likely to commit error; but there are, however, few of the profession who devote attention to the dog with the zeal which the comprehension of its diseases and their treatment demand. Huntsmen and gamekeepers are generally from practical experience not altogether inapt dog doctors, where the larger and more robust kind of animal is to be treated, but for the smaller and petted species these persons ought not to be consulted. Many of their receipts are harsh – not a few of them inoperative – and some even dangerous; while all for the most part are pushed down at random, or in total ignorance of any effect the agents employed may induce beyond the intended one of doing good or working a certain cure. Nevertheless, with the kind of animals generally entrusted to their charge, such persons are so far successful that, in the absence of better advice, they deserve to be consulted for the larger species of dogs. The human physician will also, on occasions, be enabled to prescribe advantageously for the canine race; but not knowing the treatment of the diseases, and the symptoms being too often deceptive, the highest opinions are by no means to be absolutely relied upon.

Dog-doctoring is, in fact, a separate branch of science so intricate as to call for intense study strengthened by constant observation. No one not attached to the animal should attempt to master it, for success in such a case would be hopeless. The annoyances are so great that the patience is continually being tried; and the facts on which reliance can be placed are so few, that he who is content to depend upon the received assertions will never be able to realize his expectation. Nothing is more erroneous than to believe that there is any close analogy between man and the dog in the operation of medicinal substances. Aloes, rhubarb, &c., are not purgatives to the dog; but castor oil, which to the human being is a gentle laxative, to the dog is an active purge; while Epsom salts are a violent hydragogue to the canine patient, producing copious and watery stools. Common salt is in large doses a poison, and in apparent small quantities is so strong an emetic as to be dangerous. Salivation speedily ensues upon the use of minute quantities of mercury, which therefore cannot be considered safe in the hands of the general practitioner. Secale cornutum has little specific action beyond that of inducing vomiting; and strychnia cannot be with security administered, on account of its poisonous operation upon the animal. Other instances, casting more than suspicion upon the inferences which every writer upon Materia Medica draws from the action of drugs given to dogs, could easily be quoted, but they would here be somewhat out of place; and probably sufficient has been said to check a dangerous reliance upon results that admit of no positive deduction.

It is painful to peruse the "experiments" made especially by the French authors. We read that so much of some particular agent caused death to a dog in such a period; but he must be wise indeed who learns anything from statements of this kind. The word dog represents animals of various sizes and very diverse constitutions; therefore no conclusion can be drawn from an assertion that does not embrace every particular. Unfortunately, however, the operators think it no disgrace to their scientific attainments to put forth such loose and idle assertions; nor do they seem to hold it derogatory to their intelligence that they assume to reach a show of certainty by experimentalising upon a creature about which, as their reports bear witness, they literally know nothing. Equally unsatisfactory are the surgical and physiological experiments made upon these creatures. No results deduced from such acts can be of the slightest importance. The anatomy of the dog is not by them generally understood. There is no book upon this subject that is deserving of commendation; and, to instance the ignorance which prevails even in places where a superficial knowledge ought to exist, I will mention but one circumstance.

At the Royal Veterinary College there is a professor of Particular Anatomy, whose duty it is specially to instruct the pupils concerning the dog. The lectures, however, embrace but little, and that little is principally devoted to wandering remarks upon the osseous structure. Of the value of such teaching some opinion may be formed when the skeleton at the College actually exhibits the bones placed in wrong or unnatural situations. After the proof thereby afforded, with what reliance can any sane mind accept the awful declarations of those anatomists who, upon the living bodies of these creatures, have, according to their own accounts, exhibited a nicety and certainty of skill which the profoundest acquaintance with the various structures and parts would still leave incomprehensible? Such reports evidence only the presumptuous folly of individuals – the publication of such records testifies no more than the ignorance of the age.

To give medicine to the Dog often creates more bustle than the magnitude of the creature appears to justify. Moreover, if the parties concerned in the undertaking are not quite up to their business, the animal, which, between its gasping, howling, and struggling, will find time to bite, increases the activity by provoking human exclamations. I have known this species of confusion to have been continued for half an hour; during which work was stopped in a forge, and three brawny smiths joined a veterinary surgeon's efforts to give a pill to a little spaniel that could not have weighed above eight pounds. The dog was beaten and hands were bitten, but after all no pill was swallowed. The result was the natural consequence of the manner of proceeding. No man should contend with an animal, and especially with a dog, whose excitement soon renders it incapable of obedience.

With brutes of every kind, if the mastery cannot, by a bold stratagem, be gained at once, it should be only established through the confidence of the animal, which a few acts of kindness will, in the majority of cases, easily win. I have had dogs brought to me which seemed disposed rather to part with life than permit their jaws to be handled. The poor beasts had been harshly used by the persons who had previously undertaken to treat them. These creatures have remained with me, and in a little time have grown so submissive that my shop-boy could with ease give any kind of physic which I ordered to be prepared. Firmness and kindness were the only stratagems I employed. I took care never to give the dog a chance of mastery, but while ensuring my victory, I was careful that the conquest caused no sense of pain. A few pats, with a kind word, and an occasional reward in the shape of a bit of meat, induced the creature more willingly to submit when the next dose came round.

A small dog should be taken into the lap, the person who is to give the physic being seated. If the animal has learned to fight with its claws, an assistant must kneel at the side of the chair and tightly hold them when the dog has been cast upon its back. The left hand is then made to grasp the skull, the thumb and fore finger being pressed against the cheeks so as to force them between the posterior molar teeth. A firm hold of the head will thus be gained, and the jaws are prevented from being closed by the pain which every effort to shut the mouth produces. No time should be lost, but the pill ought to be dropped as far as possible into the mouth, and with the finger of the right hand it ought to be pushed the entire length down the throat. This will not inconvenience the dog. The epiglottis is of such a size that the finger does not excite a desire to vomit; and the pharynx and œsophagus are so lax that the passage presents no obstruction.