THE CARE OF A TERRIER
One of the most noted veterinarians in New York once said to me that,
if it were not for too much or too little attention, he doubted if he
should ever be called upon to treat a dog. He explained his meaning by
adding that the toy dogs are generally killed by kindness and most
terriers die of neglect. If this is true, and this doctor has a canine
practice that keeps him busy from morning till night, there must be
something radically wrong with the care of most dogs.
The terriers--for the evils of a candy diet and a life spent on silken
pillows do not need to be even mentioned here--the terriers can, it is
perfectly true, get along with less attention than most breeds of dogs,
for they all have wonderful constitutions. Does that, however, give the
terrier owner a free right and license to neglect his dogs?
It is almost a joke to keep such a naturally healthy dog as a terrier
in the pink of condition. All he needs is dry, clean kennels, with
decent bedding; good, nourishing food at regular hours; all the fresh
water he wants to drink; plenty of exercise, and a little grooming.
Given these few things and a terrier will be "disgustingly well," full
of high spirits, and happy as a clam at high tide. It is really so easy
to keep a terrier "fit," and it means so much to the dog and his owner,
whether he be a dog owner for pleasure or profit, that it is nothing
less than criminal not to do so.
Kennels, bedding, food and feeding, water, exercise, and
grooming--these are the things which given proper attention mean a
healthy and happy dog. Let us take them up, one at a time, for it is as
often ignorance as thoughtlessness that causes the trouble.
The question as to the kind of a kennel is bound to have a variety of
different answers according to whether one lives in the city or the
country, in the North or the South, and whether one is to keep one dog
or fifty. There are, however, certain fundamental considerations that
apply to any home for dogs.
In the first place, all terriers, especially those wearing those
wonderful, double, weather-proof garments we call "wire coats," are
best off living the simple life out of doors. This is true in any
climate. I used to have all sorts of troubles with the skins and coats
of my wire terriers till I just turned them out, providing them with
dry, draft-proof, but unheated shelters in which to sleep and where
they could escape very bad weather.
My own experience has proved to me that wire coated terriers are worlds
better off for being out every day and night in the year. Even in the
severest weather they do not need artificial heat, if they have a
perfectly dry, draftless, well bedded place to sleep in and to serve as
a shelter on very wet, stormy days. A decent kennel for any dog from a
St. Bernard to a Pomeranian is dry and draft-proof, and so the terrier
owner can eliminate the question of artificial heating.
The man who lives in the city should try to keep his dog out in the
yard as much as possible, and, if at all feasible, let him sleep there.
Dogs have an inborn instinct to "bay the moon" and terriers are
supposed to be great talkers. Moreover, city backyards, since the days
when town residences were hollow stone piles lined with hides to keep
the wind out, have always been a favorite _rendezvous_ for Thomas
Catt, Esq., and Mistress Tabby, meetings just as hard on the nerves of
a self respecting terrier as they are on those of his sleepy master.
The trouble is that, while master becomes a public benefactor by
hurling his shaving mug out the window, the efforts of his dog to drive
away the disturbers are regarded by the unsympathetic neighbors as
quite as bad as the feline serenades and battle cries. No dog will bark
at night if he is in a dark, quiet place, and the terrier in the
backyard will sleep like a baby if he is shut up in a box covered with
burlap.
The ideal terrier kennel is an oil barrel. These cannot always be
obtained, but any barrel or keg intended to hold liquids, and so made
water tight, will answer. A hole, just large enough to let the dog in
and out, should be cut in one end. Then the inside may be painted with
kerosene and a lighted paper dropped in. This cleans the barrel and
destroys any insects, and is an excellent thing to do every month or
so.
The barrel ought to be painted inside and out, and to keep it from
rotting on the bottom must be mounted on blocks so that it just clears
the ground. Rain can be kept out of the door either by tacking a
curtain of sacking over it (a dog soon learns to go through this and it
can be hung up in good weather) or by making a roof of V shaped
planking, which sets over the barrel, projecting in front like the
eaves of a barn. Two small terriers or one Airedale can live easily in
these keg kennels in summer, with an extra dog added, for warmth's
sake, in cold weather.
Another kennel that is fine for terriers is one I adapted from the
suggestions of a chicken owner, who used a similar box as a coop for
hens with young chicks. It is a box that can be taken all apart. The
floor is a raised platform against which the sides fit closely, being
fastened together with hooks. The roof slants backward and is held in
place by thin strips that fit just inside the walls.
This is fine for summer, but must be very carefully made to be tight
enough for cold weather. Its flat floor makes it admirable for a bitch
with puppies and it has the great advantage of enabling you to leave
off any side you wish. Naturally, they are very easy to clean. They can
be made any size or shape you wish and cost from five dollars up.
For the man who is going into a large kennel little can be said that
will be broadly useful. One wants to build a model kennel of hard wood
and concrete, while the next has an old chicken house to adapt to doggy
uses; naturally requirements and conditions are very different.
The first thing that any kennel builder wants to see to is that he has
good natural drainage and that his runs are on quickly drying ground,
gravel rather than clay. Southern exposures are the favorites, and it
is better to have two or three smaller buildings rather than to house
all the dogs in one. In this way there is opportunity to give each
building a rest once in a while, and this should be done in the case of
the individual runs and pens, if not for the whole building.
Good hard wood, varnished and kept clean and well drained, is the most
popular floor for kennels. Concrete is cold in winter, asphalt is far
from desirable in summer, and both are hard on a dog's feet. Dirt,
gravel, and ashes are very hard to clean. Cork is expensive and rots
out with amazing speed.
The sleeping benches ought to be about two feet off the floor and
so arranged that they can be taken down, cleaned, and set out in
the sun to dry. Plenty of elbow grease, backed up with a good strong
disinfectant and fresh air and sunlight, these are the secrets of a
successful kennel. Cleanliness means that disease and parasites will be
unknown.
Wheat or rye straw or wood shavings make the best bedding. The straw
costs more than hay, but it is ten times as cleanly, lasts twice as
long, and is much better for a dog's skin. Very often shavings will be
given away for the carting of them, and they make a fine summer
bedding, though they are not very warm for winter. Shavings, especially
pine shavings, make a very poor home for fleas. Excelsior is not
popular. It has a distressing habit of wadding up in hard bunches in
corners, absorbs moisture, and does not dry out easily. Moss and sea
weed and such beddings are dirty and hard to handle.
Food is an important item in the care of the dog. Table scraps make, in
my opinion, the ideal food for a dog. In this the house pet has the
advantage over his friend of the kennels, for he gets a wide variety of
well cooked and nourishing food, and variety, cooking, and nourishment
are the foundation of good feeding.
Dog biscuits, which are so cheap and easy to handle, are excellent in
their way, but one should resist the temptation to feed them all the
time. You would not like to live on beefsteak three times a day, week
in and week out. Dry bread can be bought by the barrel from most bakers
and is at once inexpensive and nourishing. Shredded wheat and cracker
scraps can also be gotten and are useful for a change. All of these
should be fed soaked in some soup.
In the winter I have found corn meal very acceptable, but the moment
hot weather comes along its use should be discontinued, or skin
troubles will surely result. It can either be made in a mush with milk
or water, or baked into corn bread cakes.
I use a homemade dog biscuit from corn meal and meat in the following
way. The meat stock is boiled over night in a kettle and the unstrained
soup is used instead of water with the meal in making dough, which is
put in pans of two or three inches in thickness and baked in a slow
oven till hard all the way through. This will take a day. These cakes
are rich and should not be fed too often, but they can be kept a month,
and I never saw a terrier that did not relish them. In summer, fish
boiled twenty-four hours, till the bones are all soft, makes a nice
change from the meat soups of the winter.
There are many who might be called canine vegetarians, but experimenting
has convinced me that meat is the best and most natural food for the
dog. Sirloin does cost a lot of money these days, but hearts, lungs,
heads, odds and ends of ribs, and shank bones do not cost so much, and
you can always make arrangements with a butcher to save you these.
Under no circumstances feed meat that is decayed. It does not have to
be as fresh as you demand for your own table, if you take care to cook
it thoroughly, but meat that is mouldy or rotting is poison, not food.
Most kennels feed twice a day,--a light lunch in the morning and the
regular day's feed in the evening. The morning bite can be bread or
biscuits with a little soup over them. The evening meal ought to be all
that the dog will comfortably eat without stuffing. If any food is left
in the dishes it should be cleaned away before night, and a dog who is
"off his feed" should have attention.
Dogs vary as much as people in the amount they will eat. One gobbler
is always thin, while a dainty eater will put on more flesh than
necessary. It is the height of foolishness to pamper a dog's taste and
make him an epicure, but neither is it wise to treat them all just
alike.
Exercise naturally follows feeding in our consideration of the health
of the dog. Exercise, and plenty of it, is the best tonic, it keeps the
muscles hard and the stomach in shape; it prevents fatness, and is just
play for a dog.
There is, however, exercise and exercise. To walk a dog along on a lead
is exercise, but three minutes' free running is worth half an hour of
"taking the dog out for a walk" after the manner of the young lady who
lives in the city. Each kennel should have an exercising yard, a lot as
big as possible, where the dogs can be turned out for a romp. One wants
to be a little careful about leaving a lot of dogs turned out together,
for their likes and dislikes are as strong as our own.
I remember with sorrow an experience of this kind. A recently purchased
dog was added to a run full of home bred youngsters, and because he was
older and bigger he played the bully till one bright morning three of
his victims combined forces and gave him a lesson in manners. It was a
lesson for his owner too, for the dog's ear was so chewed that he was
ruined for showing.
The last item in the care of the dog is grooming, but it is at least as
important as any of the others we have taken up. Most dogs are washed
too often and not brushed often enough. Washing once in two weeks in
summer and once a month in winter is all that is needed to keep a
terrier clean, but he should be brushed daily.
In washing a dog start at the head with a good disinfectant soap and
work backwards and downwards, for fleas make for the head when
threatened with drowning and only in this way can these pests be gotten
rid of. It is well to let the soap stay in the coat a few minutes, but
it must be all washed out very carefully before drying the dog.
The daily grooming should consist first of a combing with a fairly fine
comb to clean out matted dirt and hair. This should be followed by a
sharp brushing with what is called in stable a dandy brush. The
finishing touches will be a rub down with a hound glove, such as is
sold in the kennel supply stores. Such treatment will keep a terrier in
almost perfect show form all the time and the stimulation of the skin
will be found to act as a regular tonic.
Housed in clean, draftless kennels; given good food with lots of
exercise, and with some little attention bestowed on his toilet, a
terrier is sure to be healthy and happy. Prevention is proverbially
better than cure, and the little work of keeping a terrier well is
nothing compared to the care of a sick dog. Dogs do not make very
pleasant patients, and there is the added difficulty in finding out
just what really ails them, for even the most intelligent of our
animals cannot tell us where his aches are and how a dose of certain
medicine affects him.