Mrs. William Kuback, with Ch. Lady Sensation
The food problem at the present time is a very serious one. The high cost of all sorts of food of every variety should force those breeders who have been keeping a very inferior stock to make up their minds once and for all that it takes just as much time and cost to raise “mutts” as it does the real article. Weed out the inferior stock that never did or will pay for their keep. Keep half a dozen good ones that will reproduce, if bred rightly, their quality, if you have not plenty of room for a large number. To those fanciers who only own two or three, sufficient food is usually furnished from the scraps left from the table, supplemented, of course, with dog biscuit.
Many kennel-men, who have a large number of dogs to feed, obtain daily from hotels or boarding houses the table scraps, and this makes an ideal food. We fed quite a large number of dogs for several years in this way with perfect success. I know of a large pack of foxhounds that are fed from the same food furnished by a large hotel. Fish heads boiled with vegetables make a good diet—be sure there are no fish hooks left in them, and the scraps from the butchers that are not quite fit for human consumption make ideal food when cooked with rice or vegetables. Be careful they are not too old, however. When skimmed milk is obtainable at the right price, with waste stale bread, it makes a well balanced ration for occasional feeding. A few onions boiled up with the feed are always in order.
I think the subject of “Tails” requires more than a passing mention here. All observers at the recent shows must have noticed the tendency toward a lengthening in many of the tails of the dogs on the bench. Some dogs have been awarded high honors which carried “more than the law allows”, owing doubtless to their other excellent qualities. While I personally believe in a happy medium, never lose sight of the fact that a good short screw tail has always been, and, I believe, will always remain a leading characteristic of the American dog.
In selecting a stud dog be certain his tail is O. K. The bitch can very well afford to carry a longer one, and usually whelps better on this account. I know of nothing more discouraging in the Boston terrier game than to have a litter of choice puppies in every other respect, but off in tails.
While writing on the subject of tails, it may not be out of place to note an interesting fact in connection with this at the earliest history of our little dog. Mr. John Barnard became the possessor of Tom, afterward known as Barnard’s Tom. This was the first Boston terrier to rejoice in a screw tail. Mr. Barnard did not know what to make of it, so he took the pup to old Dr. Saunders, a well known and respected veterinary surgeon of the day, to have the tail, if possible, put into splints and straightened. I guess there have been quite a number of pups, descendants of Tom, whose owners would have been only too glad to have had their straight tails put in splints, if, thereby, it would have been possible to produce a “screw”.
I think the subject of sufficient importance to again call the attention of breeders to the necessity of the extreme care in breeding seal brindles. The demand started some years ago for very dark color has placed upon the market many dogs devoid of any brindle shading. At the last Boston Terrier Club specialty show a beautiful little dog, almost perfect in every other respect, was given the gate on account of being practically black.
In my former chapter on Color Breeding, I urged the necessity of using a red or light mahogany brindle on black stock. If either sex come black, never use any other color than these to mix in. Enough said!
One is constantly hearing from all parts of the country of the prevalence of bitches missing. Where they are bred to over-worked stud dogs no surprise need be manifested. In case of a “miss” have the bitch bred two or three times to the dog next time. If she misses then, the next time let her run with the dog for several days. I have written this before, but it will bear repetition.