Raising dogs may prove a profitable business for any one who likes dogs, understands them, and is willing to doctor them when they are sick, and train them to good habits. An untrained dog is a nuisance, however well bred he may be.
To start a small kennel does not require any more room than to start in the chicken business in a small way. Just now the prices are so absurdly high on high-bred dogs of popular varieties that few but fanciers can afford to own the best stock. Why is it not better to raise some first-rate but not fashionable breed, and not enter into competition with men whose living depends on the number of blue ribbons they can win at dog shows? Buy a young female dog, teach her, and train her. Get experience with one dog and her young ones before you put in much capital. Find out by going to a good dog show what are the points of a good dog of your chosen breed, make out a score card, and mark your own dogs. Sell for pets those which do not come up to the mark. I have before me a balance sheet made out by a young man who began raising white English bull terriers in nineteen hundred and three. In spite of a lot of bad luck, which, with better arrangements, need not have happened, he netted nearly a hundred dollars the first year and over two hundred the second year. This young man kept chickens, too, beside his regular business which kept him at an office seven hours a day; and he found dogs better money makers than chickens.
In raising puppies there are three important essentials: the right sort of food, fresh, clean water to drink, and exercise. I believe more dogs get sick from water or lack of it than from any other one cause. If a dog's dish is not clean enough for you to drink out of yourself, then it is not fit for your pups. Keep that in mind. Fresh air and sunshine are as necessary for puppies as for children. Kennels should be airy, face the south, and have shavings or straw bedding.
Authorities differ about a dog's food. It is safe to feed him about as you would a growing boy. Like the boy he may overeat of his favourite dish. For breakfast, oatmeal or other cereal with milk and no sugar; for lunch, some dry dog biscuit or stale bread; for afternoon tea, soup or gravy thickened with boiled rice or corn mush. But a puppy's supper ought to be a good square meal because he is an outdoor sleeper, and it is easy for dogs to take cold on an empty stomach. For supper, then, give the puppies some bits of cooked meat, stale bread, and gravy or cooked vegetables. "Never feed a puppy hot bread or any rich, greasy, or highly seasoned foods. Avoid all sweets." Doesn't that sound like a book on what children should eat? But it is quoted right out of a dog book.
If your dogs get sick, eczema, distemper, or fits, consult a veterinary surgeon. A good book on dogs and their care will be of greatest value to you for such minor troubles as dogs are heir to.
Full-grown dogs do not need more than two meals a day. Most dogs are over-fed, under exercised, and are therefore unhealthy beings. Dogs eat slowly and should not be hurried. They should be fed regularly but not fussed over.
A word to boys and girls who own pets: if you live cooped up on a small lot you have no right to keep a dog, much less dogs. If you have a dog and let him run at large, you will probably lose him, and you deserve to. Nobody has any right, law or no law, to allow his live stock, let them be chickens, dogs, cats, or children, to annoy the neighbours. A dog or a cat, a rabbit, or a family of chickens can do more damage in a garden than anybody would believe,—except the gardener. Your dog may be worth ten dollars; he may do ten dollars' worth of damage in ten different bulb beds in ten days. A thirty-cent cat can frighten away more birds in five days than an owner can attract to his garden in a whole season. Be fair to yourself, your neighbour, and your animals, and keep them on your own place. If you are out with your dogs, that is a different matter; if you have them trained "to heel," people will welcome you.
GOLDFISH
I have already said that the Shetland pony is the ideal pet. That is true still, but I should have said "for out of doors." Of all the candidates for the office of ideal indoor pet, I believe goldfish would get the most votes.
They are peaceful and innocent, their needs are few, and their manners engaging. They are attractive in colour, shape, and movements and never get under foot. Above all they have no bad habits. They neither squawk nor whistle, bark, sing, nor howl. They never stay out late nights, nor make trouble with the neighbours. They require a minimum of attention and a minimum of expense both for quarters and for food. For developing a sense of responsibility in children they serve a good purpose, and they can even be taught. It is very evident that they have memory as well as sight, hearing, sense of smell, touch, and taste. They easily learn, if patiently taught, to know their master's voice and to come when he signals. They will learn their feeding time and place and seem to enjoy attention.