WALKING FOXHOUND PUPPIES.
I believe I am correct in stating that no woman who has ever hunted,
professes any other feeling than that of ardent admiration for the
hounds which provide her with sport; but I would like to see this
admiration take, among hunting women, the more practical form of walking
hunt puppies, in whose future well-being they should have a keen
personal interest. There are two maiden ladies in Ireland, who, although
they have never hunted, and are long past the age at which they are
likely to do so, always, from sheer love of sport, walk a couple of
foxhound puppies for their district hunt. We want, I think, more of this
sporting Irish feeling among our sex, for I am sure that apart from all
other considerations, a hunting woman would find more to interest her in
the rearing and training of a foxhound puppy, whose career she could
literally follow, than in spending money and time in clothing and
nursing a useless pug or toy terrier. There is no more intelligent and
charming companion for a woman than a young foxhound, who appears to be
able to do everything but speak, and even that he can do in a mute way,
for when he is greatly troubled, he cries like a human being, with real
tears. I am thinking as I write of a young Cottesmore pup I was walking
at Melton Mowbray who, when a friend accidentally trod on his foot, came
yelping up to me for sympathy with big tears rolling down his face. When
I picked up this heavy lump of dog and soothed him, he at once stopped
his yelping and his tears like a child.
Mr. Otho Paget in his interesting book, _Hunting_, says, "The whole
future success of your breeding hounds rests on being able to get good
walks," and in order to ensure such success, he advises generosity in
the matter of prize giving at the annual puppy show and the luncheon on
that occasion, to be "as smart and festive as you can make it." Mr.
Paget considers that the "ideal home for a puppy" is a farmhouse; but
even if this statement were correct--which I greatly doubt, seeing the
poverty of many farmers and the neglected state of their own domestic
animals--few farmers walk foxhound puppies even in classic
Leicestershire. When a large landowner, good sportsman and lover of
hunting like the late Duke of Rutland, makes an agreement with his
tenant-farmers, to walk puppies, the work is certain to be carried out
in a give and take manner which will cement good feeling between both
parties, and will promote sport; but the practice which obtains in some
badly managed hunts of sending a whipper-in to dump down his cartload
of puppies on any people who will consent to take them, is not only akin
to cadging, but is also productive of many cases of neglect which ought
to come before the notice of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals. Instead of deputing servants to dispose of young hounds in
this casual manner, the Master or his Secretary should approach the
residents of the district, and either personally, or by writing, arrange
with them to walk puppies, so that they may be prepared to receive their
young charges. Also, the Master or Secretary should visit the puppies at
walk occasionally, as such practical interest taken in their welfare,
would tend to encourage the walker in her by no means easy task of
rearing the youngsters.
Mr. Otho Paget's advice as to prize giving and a sumptuous lunch hardly,
I think, meets the requirements of the case. We can dismiss the lunch,
as very few of my sex care for "smart and festive" feeding, and as far
as the prizes go for their trouble and expense with the animals, what is
the use of judging puppies six months after they have returned from
walk? The poor, neglected, half-starved animal who goes back to kennels
all skin and bone may, if he be a well-shaped hound, show up better at
the time of judging, than those who were returned full of good food and
in hard exercise, but who may have lost in condition by fretting, or by
having to live on shorter rations than before. Some puppies, as I know
from experience, have either died during the six months' interval, or
have been drafted to another pack. Therefore it would be far more
satisfactory and encouraging to puppy walkers for the judging to be on a
day fixed for them to take their young charges to the kennels. In bygone
days when country squires lived on their land and their tenants were
under contract to walk puppies, the present arrangement no doubt
answered well enough, because it was to the tenant's interest to do his
best to please his landlord; but times have changed since then. The
large majority of people who hunt nowadays, rent hunting boxes for the
season, and take so little interest in country life that they fly off to
town on the first appearance of frost, and are not seen again until the
land is fit to be ridden over. When the season ends, they disappear till
the following one. Few of them know any of the resident farmers or
inhabitants of hunting centres even by sight, or want to know them. This
snobbish exclusiveness is very harmful to the interests of hunting,
because the farmers are under no obligation to them--quite the
reverse--and a farmer can, if he likes, refuse to allow them to ride
over his land. Therefore, when hunting people show farmers no civility,
the agriculturists naturally do not care to go to the trouble and
expense of walking hunt puppies, as several farmers have told me, unless
they are given a better inducement to do so than present arrangements
offer. Then again, in judging puppies returned from walk, supposing the
judging takes place at once, as it should do, only the condition of the
puppies, and not their "points" should be taken into consideration; for
the walker usually has to take any puppies that are given to him, and as
he does not breed them, he cannot be held responsible for any defects
which may be in their make and shape. The hunt puppy-show ought to be a
function entirely apart from the walkers' show, and until this is done,
the unfortunate puppies will continue to be dumped down on any stranger
who will consent to take them.
I cannot help thinking that the great mortality which takes place every
season among young hounds, might be considerably lessened if the various
hunts were to send out with the puppies, for the benefit of
inexperienced walkers, a pamphlet or card of printed instructions
concerning their feeding and general management. They should also
request the walker to report any case of sickness, and should at once
despatch a competent veterinary surgeon to investigate such cases and
prescribe for the young patients. The inexperienced puppy walker, in her
anxiety to get her charges strong, often gorges them to repletion with
raw meat even before they have got any permanent teeth, which is as
absurd as feeding an infant on raw steak. We know not how young hounds
contract distemper, but they cannot be prevented in their daily walks
from eating offal, and if the germs of the disease are taken into their
bodies in this way, the hound whose system has been weakened by
"heating" and unsuitable food will seldom recover. I do not wish to pose
as an authority on this subject and am simply giving, for the benefit
of ladies who find themselves placed in a similar predicament, my
experience, or rather, at this stage, inexperience, in walking a couple
of Cottesmore pups. I tried very hard to save those pups, nursed them
night and day, and had them in my room at night, but both died. One of
them was slowly recovering, but was so weak that he could hardly stand,
and I was recommended to give him some fresh meat cut up small. This
food occasioned a relapse, and next day he was dead. I notice that Mr.
Otho Paget in his book on _Hunting_ recommends "a little raw fresh meat"
for weakly pups, but possibly he would not advocate it for one getting
over distemper. I attributed the death of my charges solely to improper
feeding, and have since been successful in rearing others by feeding
them at first on bread and milk, biscuits and gravy, scraps of cooked
vegetables, and when meat has been given, I have taken care to see that
it has been _cooked_. Even with the greatest attention to diet and
exercise, that horror, distemper, has attacked them, but they have made
a good recovery. At the time of writing I am walking a couple of
Pytchley pups, which alas, will soon go to their permanent home. Both of
them have had distemper, one in a very severe form, accompanied by an
abscess in his throat, which prevented him from swallowing anything but
beaten eggs and milk for several days. His portrait (Fig. 141) shows
that he has now "grown into a hound," and I am proud of him, for all of
the Pytchley pups of the first, or spring batch, which were distributed
in this village died of distemper with the exception of my couple. My
pups must have contracted the disease from a neighbouring farmer's dog
who died of it in great agony with an abscess in his throat. Possibly
the adoption of some kind of muzzle would prevent puppies from eating
diseased matter.
[Illustration: Fig. 141.--Pytchley puppy, Mottley.]
My belief in the necessity of giving hounds cooked meat and rigorously
abjuring it in a raw state, excited ridicule here, but when the good
result of such "faddy" feeding was proved by the healthy condition of
the animals, the unbelievers acknowledged themselves converted. Mills,
in his _Life of a Foxhound_, tells us that Ringwood, who appears to have
been a fine hound, was brought up solely on "sweet milk, meal and
broth"; but I find that pups in hard exercise want a generous supply of
cooked paunch as well as bones for the development of their teeth, and
that if they are blown out with sloppy food, their internal arrangements
become disorganized. Besides, a hound cannot gallop on meal alone. One
of the greatest difficulties with which puppy walkers in small villages
have to contend, is in obtaining an adequate supply of paunches and
bones, for country butchers do not kill many animals in the week, as
there is little sale for meat. The average villager purchases a joint
for his "Sunday's dinner," which either lasts the whole week, or is
supplemented by scraps of meat, or even a "bone pie"! An ox paunch is of
course dressed and sold as tripe, all sorts of pork scraps are made up
into brawn, mutton ditto into "faggots," so that there is very little
left for the foxhound puppies. During the hot summer months it is best
to give pups very little cooked meat, but plenty of cooked vegetables,
biscuit, house scraps of bread, &c., and in cold weather the first meal
of the day should, if possible, be given warm, or mixed with warm milk,
for when young animals are cold and hungry, it is a good thing to warm
their little insides. All meat should be given cut up. When feeding
hounds on remains of fish, care should be taken to remove large bones,
which are very apt to choke them. If puppies are shut up at night in a
barn or loose box, their abode should be cleaned out every morning, and
any soiled straw removed. Attention should be paid to the thawing of
their drinking water during severe weather. After they have got their
teeth and begin to snarl over their bones, it is best to feed them in
separate tins, or the stronger and greedier of the two will get far more
than his fair share, even if he allows his pal to have any at all. I
have found ordinary large sized baking tins useful for feeding purposes,
as crockery is liable to get smashed. It is a good plan to have a system
of regular feeding morning and evening; for puppies, like children,
thrive better on regular meals than when they are "picking and nipping"
all day. A constant supply of fresh water should be always at hand for
their use.
For ladies who attend personally to the wants of their canine friends,
Messrs. D. H. Evans, of Oxford Street, have registered a kennel coat,
which I think will fill a want. They have adopted my suggestions
respecting its make and shape, and have made it in mud-coloured washing
material, as that tint looks less unsightly when soiled than white,
which is worn by kennel huntsmen. A protection of this kind for the
dress is needed in tending dogs, and I have found it a very serviceable
garment. Fig. 142 shows the front view of this coat; and Fig. 143, the
back view.
[Illustration: Fig. 142.--Front view of Kennel Coat.]
Another point to remember in the management of puppies is never to wash
them. I believe every experienced hound man will bear me out in
attributing many tiresome ailments to the bath tub. Hounds can be kept
perfectly clean by careful brushing, and their coats will show a gloss
and polish that no bathing can give. It is not unusual to find mange in
pups fresh from kennel, and care should be taken that the brush is not
used on the affected animal. I found that applications of paraffin and
salad oil, in equal parts of each, quickly cured mange, and that the
hair on the coat grew thick and appeared to be greatly benefited by the
lotion.
Although pills are supplied by some hunts to be given to pups who are
off their feed, it is no easy task for a woman, or even man, to induce
an animal to swallow one, and the struggles of the terrified youngster
who objects to the pill, often make it do more harm than good. That safe
old medicine, castor oil, is generally at hand, and a puppy will lap a
spoonful or two in milk without making a fuss. My experience of dog
doctoring has been practically limited to castor oil, except during
distemper, when five grains of quinine have been given daily with
beneficial results. The best way to give this medicine is to mix it with
a small piece of butter and spread this ointment on a piece of cheese,
which will be eagerly gobbled up, as all hounds appear to like cheese.
The pups should have plenty of clean dry straw for their bedding, and
boards are far safer and more comfortable for them to lie on than
bricks, which are always more or less cold and damp. Each pup selects
his own spot for his bed, which he arranges to his liking, and if plenty
of straw be given, he will burrow under it in very cold weather and thus
keep himself warm. There is certain to be one pup which we like best,
but no favouritism should be shown outwardly, as it breeds envy, hatred
and malice, and all bow-wows are afflicted with jealousy. It is best if
possible to take two pups, as a lone hound is miserable without a
playmate, and if he has no one to play with, he will be almost sure to
get into mischief. One will want to boss the other, but they can
generally be left to settle their own quarrels. In every pack there is a
master hound who rules the roost, but if he degenerates into an
intolerable bully, he may, not improbably, be killed and eaten by the
others, an occurrence which Mr. Mills tells us took place in Mr.
Conyer's kennel at Copthall, Essex.
[Illustration: Fig. 143.--Back view of Kennel Coat.]
Next to feeding, the most important thing in puppy walking is exercise.
Foxhounds have to know how to gallop, and therefore the young hound
requires training. It is both cruel and useless to keep a healthy pup
shut up in a stable or yard and afford him no opportunity of learning
his work. As soon as the young ones settle down in their new home, they
may be taken out for short walks, in order to accustom them to pass
traffic, and if possible they should have a steady old dog to lead them;
for even the placid cow coming home to be milked, will prove an object
of terror to them and probably cause them to bolt home. With the
exercise of patience and kindness, such fearsome journeys will soon be
made with safety, and moving objects will cease to be regarded; in fact
a bold hound will be likely to prove far too venturesome, and his
hair-breadth escapes from being run over will occasion much anxiety.
After the pups have got accustomed to getting out of the way of fast
traffic, it is excellent training for them to learn to follow a bicycle,
Fig. 144; but the rider must go slowly at first and only short
distances, in order not to overtax the strength of the young hounds. A
good rule is to slow down when the animals lag behind, and if they show
any signs of fatigue, and are not stopping merely to make
investigations, it is time to go slowly home. They will soon be able to
gallop as fast as any ordinary rider can safely steer her bicycle, and
will sometimes show their freshness and play, by catching hold of her
skirt with their teeth, as once happened to me and gave me a fall.
Foxhounds are however so intelligent that the animal who playfully
caused my discomfiture, looked sorrowfully at me as I lay sprawled out
with my machine on the ground, and I feel sure that when I reproached
him, he understood the drift of my remarks, for he never afterwards
attempted to touch my skirt, though he has often come bumping into me,
when flying for protection from some imaginary enemy. It is impossible
to be really angry with these most affectionate irresponsible beings,
for they are brimful of the exuberance of youth, and if they roll over
each other in the middle of the road just under the front wheel, it is
advisable to try and get out of the way. A good plan when this road
playing begins is to keep the break going, ready for "happenings."
Riding with pups is excellent practice in bicycle control! From bicycle
exercise we passed to the higher stage of taking out the pups with
horses, but I regret we did not continue the bicycle training, because
one day the bolder hound of the two (Fig. 145), who had several narrow
escapes by reason of his insane propensity for running into the middle
of the road and jumping up at the muzzle of an advancing horse, met with
a serious accident, to wit, a fractured fore leg. I was not present when
it occurred, but I had often ridden out with this hound, whose vagaries
in the matter of jumping up at my horse's muzzle or playfully biting his
hocks, frequently necessitated my riding at a walk. The animals who were
ridden with these hounds were quiet, insomuch as they never attempted to
kick them when all were loose in a paddock, or when ridden; but I even
the quietest horse in the world is apt to show annoyance if very great
liberties are taken with his person by either man or hound. My
experience teaches me to remember this fact and not try a horse, who is
not a huntsman's mount, too highly in this respect. The more sedate pup
of the two is in fine condition, because he takes no liberties with the
horses and therefore he obtains his requisite exercise; but if I wanted
a bold, generous, dashing foxhound who can use his nose, swim a river or
perform in brilliant style the work required in hunting, I should
unhesitatingly choose the bold cripple, who I hope will get his leg
right, for he would certainly perform brilliantly in any hunt, although
as a show hound he would be superseded by his more sulky and indolent
brother.
[Illustration: Fig. 144.--Puppies with bicycle.]
[Illustration: Fig. 145.--Pytchley puppy, Monarch.]
As the first requisites in a foxhound are pluck and confidence, I
would, in selecting a couple of pups from the usual cartload, prefer to
take from those who came and faced me boldly, as if inquiring my
business, rather than to seek for "show" points among those who require
to be dragged from the back of the cart for inspection. Many people are
debarred from walking foxhound pups from the tales they have heard about
their destructiveness, but these yarns are grossly exaggerated, for the
youngsters are no worse than ordinary puppies in their desire to try
their new teeth on sponges, brushes, boots or anything else they can
procure. If they are taught from the first that such things are riot,
and are given in their idle moments a bone on which to expend their
energy, they will peacefully occupy themselves with it for hours, and
after they have eaten it or as much of it as is possible to be broken
off, they will solemnly proceed to inter it for resurrection on some
future occasion.
A young dog who has had his necessary exercise, will prefer to sleep
than to get into mischief; but if kept idle, he will naturally seek some
means of working off his pent-up energy. It is as cruel to punish a
young animal for gnawing and biting inanimate objects, as it is to
strike a teething infant who is similarly prone to use his teeth on
anything he can get hold of. We generally supply such a child with a
bone ring or something equally safe to bite; and if we do not give a
puppy a bone, he will quickly find something for himself. I have a
sheep-dog pup who, having gnawed and buried a boot in the paddock, was
brought to me for correction. I gave him a "good talking to" and
ordered him to lie down near me under the table, where I believed he
would be out of mischief. I went on with my work and thought he was
asleep, but when I bent down and looked at him, I found him busy at a
large hole he was biting in our carpet! It was all my fault--he ought to
have had a bone.
We now come to the important question of corporal punishment, which I
have deferred, as I hate it, but I know that it is a necessary evil.
Solomon's warning about sparing the rod is more applicable, I think, to
foxhounds than to children, for the spoilt hound has before him a
fearful day of reckoning which a child may escape. Therefore our
supposed kindness in ignoring sins of omission or commission is, in the
case of a young hound, a cruel wrong which will assuredly cause him a
great deal of suffering that timely correction on our part may avert. In
the first place we ought to insist on implicit obedience, not by
coaxing, but by the whip, for if a hound wilfully disobeys the person
whom he loves as his mother, how much less will he be inclined to obey
the orders of a stranger who is his whipper-in? When it is necessary to
punish a glaring offence concerning which the lady walker, who is acting
the part of mentor, has given an unheeded warning, the offender should
be well whipped by someone told off to perform this operation, and when
they fly to her for sympathy, she should remain silent as one who knows
they have been justly punished. If she has to undertake these salutary
thrashings herself, she should call the hounds to her in a tone of
voice which she knows they can hear, and if, as frequently happens, they
hesitate for a moment, look at her and then decide to disobey her
command, she should follow them up, still calling on them to come to
her, but now in a severer tone, and the disobedient ones will generally
falter and take refuge in any available place. Then is the time to
punish them with a few sharp cuts of whip or cane. There will be no
howling, as the pups know very well that they have transgressed, and
will show it on the way home by answering promptly when they are called.
Pups must be punished only when they are caught in the act of
disobedience; but a sin of yesterday must never be punished to-day;
because foxhounds, like all dogs, have a keen sense of justice, and only
understand the meaning of punishment when it is timely administered. All
attempts at hunting on their own account should be rigorously repressed,
and the personal dignity of the house cats should be upheld. Even when
the hounds are accorded the special favour of entering the house, our
pussies must be no more disturbed by them than they would be by our
house dogs who sleep near the fireside with them. I like to encourage
hounds to visit me occasionally in the house, as then they are, so to
speak, on their honour, and they so much appreciate these visits that
they lie peacefully near the fire with the cats in perfect friendship,
after having carefully examined, without touching, everything in the
room. They may look and smell, but not touch, and as bad behaviour in
this respect means instant ejection, they soon become like visitors to a
museum. The worst about puppy walking is that one has to part with these
delightful companions, and that parting is a time of sorrow which we
feel almost as keenly as if they were our children leaving home for the
first time with all life's troubles before them.