With but one dog in the household or on the premises, the question of food is not a serious one. The scraps from the table of a family of four should be sufficient to supply the entire ration of the dog, although occasionally it is advisable to give him a change in the way of scraps of raw beef, large, soft bones to gnaw upon, and by variety it might also be well, say once a week, to procure the meat or trimmings at your butcher’s out of which a broth may be made. This is always a wholesome diet, especially if it is poured over stale bread, dog biscuits or any of the bread stuffs that cannot be used on the table.
First of all let me disabuse the reader of the old theory that meat is injurious for the dog. Taking the race as a whole, meat should form the principal diet. The dog is a naturally carnivorous animal and even though he has been under domestication for thousands of years his organs of mastication and digestion have undergone only a very slight, if indeed, any change. With this in mind, the dog owner is enabled to feed intelligently. Naturally, change of environment from his wild state has made conditions different; he does not obtain the amount of exercise that his wild ancestors did, ranging and roaming about the country in search of their daily sustenance, consequently he cannot be fed entirely the same, but nevertheless the idea which through some unknown way became prevalent years ago that meat is injurious to dogs and likely to cause disease is entirely erroneous. The principal point to keep before one is the quantity of food and the frequency of feeding. A dog which obtains considerable exercise in the way of hunting, must have more meat than one that is exercised only an hour or two each day. This is but natural; the man whose profession keeps him indoors does not require the same substantial food of the one who labors in the fields all day, and so it is with the dog. Ordinary intelligence should teach proper discretion in this respect.
Table scraps usually consist of all the necessary concomitants to a good ration. Bits of meat, bread crusts, gravies, vegetables, etc., all go to make up the waste from the table in any ordinary family. Bones, if they are large ones, may be fed, but bones from fish, poultry or small game should be eliminated if for no other reason but the possibility of their causing trouble in the intestinal canal. If one does not believe what trouble this may produce let him take the leg bone of a chicken or lamb, place them on a stone and strike them a sharp blow with a hammer. He will see at once that they are crushed into a hundred tiny splinters. One can readily imagine what havoc this may do if they should lodge in the stomach or intestines of a dog. Perhaps one might feed these bones to a dog throughout his entire life without ill results, but on the other hand, trouble might ensue, hence to be on the safe side, it is better to take no chances.
Vegetables make a good bulk food, but they should be fed very sparingly, and then only in connection with the other food. There is little nutriment in vegetables for a dog; potatoes are of no value and are more harmful than beneficial and the idea that dogs must be fed garlic, tomatoes, onions and the like has been exploded long ago. A very little of these in the regular food is passable, but do not attempt to make a vegetarian of your dog. Corn meal, in its place, is well enough fed occasionally, but as a regular food it is harmful, especially in summer, as it causes skin irritations, because it is too heating. Oat meal is some better, and rice, perhaps, the best of all, but any of these foods should be fed only occasionally. Some breeds, such as Yorkshire terriers, Maltese and the like do very well with little meat and some say they should not have it at all, but even this is questionable.
In large kennels it is well to cook one’s own food or make a bread composed of unbolted wheat, a little rice, meat and a few well cooked vegetables, the whole to be thoroughly cooked and then baked into a bread in a slow oven which will cook it through and through so that it will keep for a long time, but the owner of one dog may as well dismiss this as unnecessary. To summarize: feed what the family table offers, procure meat from your butcher occasionally, for the broth and bones previously referred to, and do not overlook the raw meat, which should be shredded or chopped finely and fed three or four times a week in small quantities, for young dogs, but in larger portions for grown ones. It is also well to obtain large bones with the meat still clinging to them. Dogs love to tear the meat from the bones and they also obtain considerable satisfaction in gnawing the bones. Even puppies three months old and under may be fed raw meat in small quantities to good advantage, and from personal experience I have found that puppies thus fed will thrive better than those who obtain little or none of this kind of diet.
For very young puppies the natural diet is milk, hence when you obtain your new dog, assuming that he is three months old or under, see that he obtains an abundance of this, but do not compel him to live on a milk and bread diet entirely. Feed him a dish of this in the morning; and it might be well to give him another small feed of this about ten o’clock, then again at two and so on, until he is fed about five times during the day, but some of the meals should consist of broth and cooked meat, with an occasional feed of raw flesh. Puppies, as they grow older, should be fed less often, and at four months, three meals a day are sufficient. At this stage, the first meal in the morning may consist of milk and stale bread, but the following ones may be of table scraps or the broth made from the meat obtained from the butcher, poured over stale bread of biscuits, giving with the liquid also a sufficient quantity of the meat. At a year old the dog may be fed as any older dog is fed.
The question of frequency of feeding matured dogs has been much discussed. Many kennels feed but once daily and that meal is given in the evening. This should consist of as much in quantity as the dog will eat. The more humane method for grown dogs, however, is to feed a light meal in the morning and the heavy one in the evening. Most dogs thrive well on this, provided they obtain a sufficient amount of meat to keep their natural desire for flesh food satisfied. The dog owner will soon learn how to use discretion in feeding and obtain best results, but those who wish to go further into this food question are cited to my previous book, “Practical Dog Keeping For the Amateur.”
As to water, it must be borne in mind that the dog requires water at all times of the day or night and a vessel containing pure, fresh water should always be accessible.
CHAPTER VII
Exercise—Grooming—Washing.
While we all recognize the importance of good food as being conducive to a dog’s well being, many overlook the fact that exercise, grooming and washing are almost equally essential. This is particularly true of exercise. No matter how well a dog is fed, no matter what his care may be otherwise, he will become sluggish and out of sorts if he is unable to obtain a sufficient amount of daily exercise and the more that falls to his lot, the less liable is he to disease, for it is a well-known fact among human beings that exercise is one of the essentials of life and by the same token this is so of the dog. Without exercise the animal will not assimilate his food and while the digestive organs will perform their functions for a long time, eventually they will do so under protest, for the food taken into the system is not properly oxidized, drainage is impeded and the general sewerage system becomes faulty. No drugs will regulate this condition of affairs effectively and in time the result of this sedentary life begins to show in the dog’s eyes, his coat, and even his nerves. Mange and various eczematous diseases are also likely to appear, and many other disorders are likely to follow. Consequently, if one takes upon himself the responsibility of keeping a dog he must see to his exercise as religiously as he does to his food.