Separate small enclosed kennels are of course necessary for brood bitches and sick hounds. For the former, quiet is important. For sick hounds, which require to be kept particularly warm, these should be provided with wooden floors; and, if it can conveniently be done, a hot water pipe, brought possibly from the boiler house, will add greatly to the comfort. In sick kennels a liberal use of sawdust and of disinfectants is essential.
FEEDING TIME.
GEORGE CHAMPION.
DABBLER.
GIPSY AND RASPER.
During the summer hounds must be kept exercised, and it is a good thing to let them stand about in grass fields, when it will be found that they will eat a quantity of grass and of earth, both of which are admirable for their digestion. As the hunting season approaches, exercise must be increased up to twenty miles a day. Ponies or bicycles are useful for this, but the pace should not exceed seven miles an hour, except for sharp bursts of a few hundred yards to open the hounds’ pipes. It is more important that they should spend a long time out of kennel than that they should cover great distances.
A hunt servant should ride behind to keep hounds up and on one side of the road; they should be taught to come over quickly on to whichever side of the road the huntsman wants them. In these days of motors this is absolutely essential.
For feeding, the best oatmeal must be used, boiled the day before it is required to such an extent that when cold it almost forms the consistency of jelly. In cool weather it will keep for four or five days. Meat should be given in the form of broth with the meat left in it and chopped small, more being required in the hunting season than in summer. Raw meat every now and again is a good thing, especially for those hounds which have a tendency to eczema. To keep the blood cool the broth should contain, especially in summer, vegetables, or the young tops of nettles; mangolds too are beneficial, if well boiled. Hounds should be fed once a day only, and must be walked out for at least half an hour immediately afterwards.