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Illustration: MISS MURRAY'S BLACK PUGS. _Frontispiece_
A MANUAL OF TOY DOGS HOW TO BREED, REAR, AND FEED THEM
BY MRS. LESLIE WILLIAMS
THIRD EDITION THIRD IMPRESSION
LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 41 & 48, MADDOX STREET, BOND STREET, W. 1919
_Copyright 1904 All rights reserved_
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
This little book, in its earlier editions, met with so uniformly kind
and gracious a reception, that I am encouraged to hope it may still make
new friends on this, its third appearance. It has given me the greatest
pleasure to hear from correspondents in many countries that they have
found it as helpful as I hoped a manual drawn entirely from actual
personal experience might prove to be.
In the years which have elapsed since I first wrote upon dogs, there has
been a wonderful advance in veterinary science and practice. Operative
surgery under anaesthetics has become nearly as confident in relieving
our pets as in abating our own miseries. Much disease, however, is still
present among dogs for which there is no warrant in Nature, and which
might be entirely conquered in the course of a few generations, could
the prejudice against natural and rational diet be completely abandoned.
To persuade dog-owners to give meat-feeding a trial--one honest
experiment has never in my experience failed to convince the most
sceptical--has been my constant endeavour, and I cannot let the "Toy Dog
Manual" go forth on another journey without once more laying emphasis on
the fact that the really successful dog-owner's secret is a very simple
one, spelt in the four letters--MEAT. I have to thank numerous kind
friends for help in providing the illustrations, nearly all pictures of
actual present-day winning dogs, and examples not only of beauty and
show points, but of perfect health. I am also greatly indebted to _The
Illustrated Kennel News_ for the loan of blocks and for other kind
courtesies, as also to _The Ladies' Field_, a paper devoted in its
kennel columns to the best interest of dogs.
M. L. WILLIAMS.
SWANSWICK, BATH,
_May 5th, 1910._
CONTENTS
PAGE
TOY DOGS FOR PROFIT 1
ON BREEDING 5
THE TOY BITCH WHEN PUPPING 9
ON REARING PUPS 14
ON FEEDING TOYS 19
EXHIBITING AND PREPARING FOR EXHIBITION 23
THE CHOICE OF BREEDS 30
AILMENTS AND ILLNESSES 42
CLUB STANDARDS, DESCRIPTIONS AND POINTS OF VARIOUS TOY BREEDS 80
INDEX 105
MANUAL OF TOY DOGS
CHAPTER 1
TOY DOGS FOR PROFIT
Perhaps the question which is most frequently asked anent toy dogs is
whether the keeping them as a pleasure and hobby can be combined with
profit by means of breeding them and selling the puppies. To such a
query it is very hard to give a definite reply, for this reason--whether
or not toy dog breeding can be made profitable depends, firstly, on the
character of the enterpriser, and, secondly, on that inscrutable
factor--Fate. Some of us devote ourselves to our dogs, take endless
trouble for them, and spend money on them freely, with the poorest
possible return; others, while not making nearly so much fuss about
their pets, manage to turn out healthy litters at regular intervals, and
sell them at remunerative prices. All that can be done is to put before
the novice "how _not_ to do it," and leave to each individually the
chances called luck, for which their star is answerable. Taking one year
with another, and presupposing patience, perseverance, affection for the
dogs, and some business-like qualities in the aspirant, I am of opinion
that toy dogs can be made to pay their expenses, and leave a margin of
profit; this in the case of non-exhibitors. Where exhibiting is
contemplated, the luck element is still more to the front, and a degree
of experience, both local and general, is essential to success. If
success, however, in winning prizes is once attained, the sales of
puppies become much more assured, and higher prices are naturally
obtainable.
As a means of eking out a small income, dog breeding is occasionally
successful, supposing the breeder to possess advantages in the way of
proper quarters, and plenty of time to spare, natural aptitude not being
wanted; but I should greatly hesitate to suggest to a poor lady, without
experience in dogs, that she should embark capital in such a venture.
Many people seem possessed with the idea that they have only to buy a
female dog, or dogs (generally the latter, since the novice is always
inclined to split upon the rock of overcrowding and overstocking at
first), and get it mated with some well-known sire, to ensure a fine,
healthy litter of pups, which can be immediately sold at high prices,
having in the meantime been fed on dog biscuit and attended to, more or
less, by any one who happens to be at home. No greater mistake! If you
want to succeed with toy dogs, you must, at any rate until you have
considerable experience and, in addition, the ability to direct others
and make them understand, which is never an easy task, look after the
pets yourself, not spasmodically, but regularly; see that they have
exercise and proper food in proper quantity and variety, and at fixed
and regular hours; you must have an eye always open to notice the
smallest beginnings of illness--a watchfulness servants, for example,
never can comprehend, still less practise; and lastly, you must set an
aim before you and keep to it with perseverance, even though you may,
and probably will, often feel impatient and despairing. Then, too, you
must be prepared to nurse the dogs properly if, or when, they are ill.
Nobody can expect to be exempt from illness, dog or man, and good
nursing is as needful in the one case as in the other. A sick toy dog
must be kept clean, petted, sat with, talked to, and tempted with nice
things, like a sick baby, for the little spirit has much to do with the
tender frame, and pain and weakness need sympathy, and respond to it
eagerly. A little toy bitch, accustomed to fly to her owner at every
impulse, cannot be left to have puppies all alone--though her fussy
preparations, which may last all night, are rather wearisome. Some one
must stay with her and comfort her until her troubles are over;
otherwise, she will fret and worry until, when the pups do appear, she
has no milk for them.
All these little requirements and necessities may seem absurd to those
who think a dog is a dog and nothing more; but we have bred generation
after generation of toys to be in our constant company, and made them
almost humanly intelligent, while, naturally, their small brains have no
human balance; and that a nervous toy dog _does_ need such consideration
will be granted, I am sure, by all successful breeders. At the same
time, I am by no means advocating the silly system of over-petting and
over-feeding, whereby dogs can be made a nuisance to themselves and
every one else. Because a child must be taken care of, it does not
follow that it need be spoiled: we ought to put a hat on its head when
it goes out in the sun, but we need not walk beside it, holding an
umbrella over it; and so with our small dogs--they must be watched and
cared for, but they need not, and should not, be coddled and made silly.
I have no opinion of a dog which will not go out because it is raining,
preferring to make itself objectionable in the house; or of one which
leaves the small proportion of biscuit in its dinner and comes round
scratching your arm for more meat; or of one which rushes back to the
fire when a walk is suggested on a chilly day. Dogs like this have not
been properly cared for; it is not affection for them, seeking their
well-being, but downright silliness, which is responsible for their
self-indulgent ways. Thanks be that toy dogs of this kind are becoming
much less common, and indeed, in the case of any person desiring to keep
them with an idea of profit, such ways would be discouraged by
self-interest, for pampered dogs are not those which breed freely and do
their puppies justice.
Where it is necessary that the dogs shall pay their way, it is of the
first necessity that the inevitable expenses of starting and gaining
experience shall be carefully considered. It is not a bad plan to get a
little cheap dog, and see it through a litter before embarking in a
"paying" breed, as where these are concerned it is useless to expect
return unless a really good price has been paid for valuable stock to
begin with. One does occasionally see such toys as Japs and Poms
advertised very cheaply; and I have known people who studied these
advertisements with rosy visions of "picking up" a bitch from an
excellent strain, at a guinea or two--with some slight fault, like a few
white hairs, to cheapen her--of breeding show stock from her and making
a little fortune. Chances like this seldom come in the way of the
novice. The best start a would-be breeder who is without any experience
can have, is by placing herself in the hands of some one who has been
successful, buying a young bitch which comes of a winning strain, though
it may possess some fault, at a fair price--which will not be a small
one--and taking the breeder's advice as to mating, etc. Or it is by no
means a bad plan to buy a brace of unrelated young puppies and rear
them. Of this, more in the chapter on breeding.
To buy imported or pedigreeless small toys for breeding is a complete
lottery. Foreign breeders are extremely careless with regard to their
strains, and purity of blood can never be depended on. Another point
which must be insisted upon in relation to profitable toy breeding is
the necessity for health in the kennel. I say kennel because it is a
useful word, but am far from suggesting that toys of any kind should be
kept in the way understood by "having a kennel" among larger dogs. The
breeder who succeeds best is invariably the one who keeps one or two, or
even four or five, _pet_ bitches, running about the house enjoying full
liberty and all the happiness of personal favourites, with, it may be, a
dog also of the party. The breeder who is most troubled with skin
complaints, distemper, lengthy vet's bills, and all the expenses, such
as sick diet, which eat up profits, is the one who has built or fitted
"kennels," no matter at what expense, and filled them with dogs.