A Manual of Toy Dogs.
by Mrs. Leslie Williams.
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 ill.u.s.trations, 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 Ill.u.s.trated 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._
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 a.s.sured, 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 apt.i.tude 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 quant.i.ty 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.
n.o.body 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 b.i.t.c.h, 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 j.a.ps and Poms advertised very cheaply; and I have known people who studied these advertis.e.m.e.nts with rosy visions of "picking up" a b.i.t.c.h 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 b.i.t.c.h 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_ b.i.t.c.hes, 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.
CHAPTER II
ON BREEDING
Very small b.i.t.c.hes, and especially those belonging to certain breeds which are known to be "shy," are not only often reluctant to breed at all, but are not infrequently very indifferent mothers, while there are great risks to the b.i.t.c.h in pupping where the sire is larger than herself, or where larger dogs occur in the immediate ancestry on either side. For these reasons, brood b.i.t.c.hes are always wisely chosen of medium size, and mated to very tiny dogs. In all the breeds which come under the head of toys, smallness is a desideratum, but the practice of inbreeding which has been extensively resorted to cannot be too highly condemned; while the equally mistaken idea of attaining this end by under-feeding puppies has also contributed to the weakliness of const.i.tution which is an immense drawback to some breeds. Reckoning size by weight is another faulty practice much against the true interests of toys, which we want to be small and healthy at the same time; for a very tiny dog, if compact and st.u.r.dy, may weigh much more than a leggy specimen which, to the eye, seems half as large again.
A b.i.t.c.h from 5 lbs. to 7 lbs., if, as I said before, of a small strain, may be safely used for breeding, and the smaller the dog the better, provided he is healthy. The plan of sending away b.i.t.c.hes to a stud dog saves the expense of buying a dog of one"s own; the sire"s wins help to sell the puppies very materially, and the good offices of his owner may generally be reckoned upon to a.s.sist the novice; but there are other facets to the question.
These tiny dogs, which are frequently exhibited, are often very unreliable sires; they work too hard, and their owners are sometimes very indifferent as to whether the visiting b.i.t.c.hes are satisfactorily attended to. True, the terms always do, or certainly always should, include a second visit free if the first proves fruitless, but there is the loss of time, the disappointment to the owner, and sometimes to the little b.i.t.c.h herself, who may have been quite anxious to breed and not have had a fair chance, and the trouble and expense of travelling for her. On the whole, I am much inclined to advise the novice to, at any rate, _begin_ by rearing up a male puppy of such breeds as Pekingese and Griffons, or the scarcer toy Bulldogs, and using it for the home stud; for the other plan is less likely to result in disappointment when a little knowledge has been gained of the kennel world in general. This, of course, unless the whole thing is gone into under the aegis of some experienced owner, as before suggested. Some little b.i.t.c.hes are exceedingly capricious, and will not take the least notice of a strange dog, where they would willingly mate with one they knew and liked; others are so upset by a journey and a strange place as to be useless _pro tem._; others, again, instead of being ready to breed twice a year, as is the usual habit of female dogs, may only come in season once in twelve months, and then but fugitively. In such cases it is a positive necessity to have a dog on the spot. Where a sire must be chosen from among strangers, his points should correct any in which the b.i.t.c.h is deficient; your toy pug may have too small a head, with little wrinkle--you must look for a dog with good head properties as her mate; your Pom may be long in back, and you must seek a male with the opposite quality, and a plume well over and touching his frill.
The first puppies of two young dogs are generally larger than the parents, but I do not believe the theory often advanced that the first litter is always the best. Puppies by a very old sire are usually small.
A toy b.i.t.c.h, if sent away, should be carefully packed in a roomy, warm basket; the provision of draughty, tumble-to-pieces baskets is false economy, both for show and breeding purposes. If possible, a toy dog of either s.e.x should have a cosy little basket kennel, with a door, which it can use at home as a sleeping-place, and in which it can travel; the basket can be fitted with an outer case of wood for greater security, but the dog will stand the journey much better if it is in a familiar basket. Something with a peaked or rounded top should be chosen; the ventilation being safer in this, as flat-sided and flat-topped packages may be so crowded upon with others in a guard"s van as to suffocate the inmate.
Ill.u.s.tration: GRIFFON BRUXELLOIS. _"Sparklets," the property of Miss Johnson._
The usual period of willingness to breed in a toy b.i.t.c.h is, more or less, one week. This is preceded by about a fortnight"s preparation, a week or so of gradual enlargement of the parts concerned, and a week of a coloured discharge from the uterus and v.a.g.i.n.a. Either or all of the stages may last a longer or shorter time; but three weeks is generally accepted as the period. No attempt at mating the b.i.t.c.h should be made during the first two stages; it is when the discharge begins to cease that she is ready, and the correct judging of this time is what chiefly puzzles amateurs, though after they have once been through it they will not find any difficulty. As a rule, b.i.t.c.hes are sent away too soon, and as the conveniences for keeping them at the stud dog"s house are often few, they are cooped up for day after day, and may become quite "stale"
and dull before the real mating time comes--a poor prospect. If the two dogs are in the house together, the male should be kept entirely away from the female from the very beginning of her attraction for him, until she is ready, otherwise he will worry her incessantly and become himself ultimately indifferent and useless in the matter. Toy dogs should never be left to themselves in breeding matters; it is highly dangerous to do so, especially if they are young and inexperienced, and I strongly advise the beginner either to get some experienced breeder to overlook matters and give advice, or failing this, when the female is ready, to send the two dogs for a few hours to some kind and sensible veterinary surgeon. They should be allowed to be together twice, either on consecutive days, or with a day between.
Once mated, the little toy b.i.t.c.h must be petted and taken good care of: not over-fed, but given plenty of good, nourishing food, and systematically exercised. If she is in pup it will become evident about the fifth to the seventh week. Some dogs show it much more than others; whether she has puppies or not, she will have the natural provision of milk for them. If she does not pup, she may very likely come in season again in half the usual time. A failure to prove in pup is generally evidenced by a time of great heaviness and dullness, the b.i.t.c.h sleeping a great deal, getting very fat, and decidedly stupid; under these circ.u.mstances give her extra exercise and one or two small doses of sulphate of magnesia in food, to ward off skin irritation, a not uncommon correlative. People are far too apt to decide that "missing" is the b.i.t.c.h"s fault; certainly she is apt to miss if she is too fat at the time of mating, and Nature often, and very sensibly, arranges that she shall do so when she has been regularly bred from at her seasons for a number of times; but outside these occasions it is quite as often the dog"s fault as not.
A question which is frequently asked is as to the desirability or otherwise of giving a toy b.i.t.c.h worm medicine, or an aperient, while she is in pup or just before her babies arrive. It is as well to give one mild dose of worm medicine about the end of the third week, if the b.i.t.c.h is known to be troubled with these parasites to any great extent; but it would be much better to have dosed her before her breeding time came on.
As to the aperient before pupping which we often see advised, it is a totally unnecessary interference with Nature, and when castor oil, a violent irritant to dogs, is employed, it is a sheer piece of cruelty, likely to have very bad effects.
CHAPTER III
THE TOY b.i.t.c.h WHEN PUPPING
Too much interference is generally alternated in the case of dogs with a disregard of their natural feelings where the arrival of puppies is concerned. It is quite natural that the little b.i.t.c.h, feeling distressed and uneasy, should claim a great deal of notice and attention, and if she has been made a pet of she will expect, and deserve, to be allowed to have her puppies in her mistress"s dressing-room or some similar luxury; in which she should be indulged. But once she has got over the preliminaries, which I will presently describe, she should, if possible, be left to herself as far as manual a.s.sistance goes. Nature will bring the puppies into the world far better than our clumsy hands, and the merest little tyro of a year-old b.i.t.c.h generally possesses the marvellous instinct teaching her to put her babies comfortably afloat on the sea of life. The disregard of a pet dog"s feelings at which I have hinted may take the form of sending a tiny b.i.t.c.h out to the stable to pup under the care of a coachman or groom, and this may or may not be cruel according to whether she has any affection for the man or any knowledge of her temporary quarters; personally, I should consider it an unkind thing to do under any circ.u.mstances.
The beginning of the toy b.i.t.c.h"s trouble is apparent to her owner almost as soon as to herself. She pants, and runs about excitedly, scratching here and there, making wildly impossible and absurd nests for her puppies in all kinds of unsuitable places. This may last for days, but is generally only done for a few hours before the puppies arrive, which, by the way, will be nine weeks after mating. Some b.i.t.c.hes shriek in a very distressing way before they pup, and, as a rule, food is refused, and the little mother that is to be is often sick. No anxiety, however, need be felt. As soon as she really means business she will quiet down and settle in the place prepared for her, which by choice should be a big, deep arm-chair, with a white blanket--any old thing will do that is clean--folded in the seat of it, and over this an old cotton sheet, likewise folded, and so secured that the b.i.t.c.h cannot scrabble it up in the foolish endeavour to improve human bed-making which always possesses dogs, and, if indulged, lands them in desperate discomfort on the top of a kind of volcano of rags!
In nine cases out of ten a b.i.t.c.h chooses to pup in the night, and the hours often seem very long, while she may lie and sleep in evident uneasiness, getting up every now and then to make her bed, and panting as if exhausted. It is quite safe to leave her in this condition for twelve hours, but if by that time she seems to be getting weaker and no puppies have come, the vet"s services should be requisitioned. Probably she will not eat, but she may be offered a little cold milk. On no account give her anything hot, externally or internally, and do not be tempted to do anything whatever to her; the only interference which is ever excusable is the application of a very little sweet oil or vaseline externally, which she will lick off, and which does no harm and no good, in my experience.
If help is called for at all, it must be the skilled aid of a surgeon; any other is worse than useless.
Ill.u.s.tration: FRENCH TOY BULLDOG. _"La Reine des Roses," owned by Mrs.
Townsend Green._
The puppies are born singly, and if a b.i.t.c.h has a large litter they generally come in twos and threes, with a very short interval between the items of each brace or trio, and a long rest between the batches.
The first services the mother has to render her babies are to free them from the bag of membranes in which they are born, and to bite the cord which joins each puppy to the afterbirth--a fleshy substance which comes away with or shortly after it. All animals intensely dislike being watched while they perform these operations; but every b.i.t.c.h who is anything at all of a mother will manage them perfectly. Next comes the licking of the puppies, which have been enclosed each in its membranous bag full of liquid (the _liquor amniae_), and are consequently dripping wet. Here is the crucial test: a good mother licks her babies until they are warm and dry, then feeds them, and snuggles down with them into a contented heap of intense happiness. A bad mother, on the contrary, leaves her poor infants to dry as best they can, a process which invariably ends in their developing a kind of infantile skin complaint, which appears like a scab of cheesy substance attached to the roots of the hair. It grows away with the hair by degrees, and gets well without treatment, but is ugly and disfiguring for the time being, and a sad evidence of incompetence on the part of the mother.
When the family have settled down, and the puppies are dry and comfortable, it is time to give them a little attention. Have a saucer full of nice, warm milk-gruel, made with patent groats as daintily as for an invalid, and let the mother drink it, which she will be sure to do with grat.i.tude; she may have more at intervals during the first day.
Then roll away the soiled folds of sheet from under her and the litter, which can now be done without disturbing them, and leave them cosily ensconced on the clean, warm blanket, which has been all the time underneath.
A little later the mother may be put out into the garden for a few minutes, not more than two or three; but she must not be allowed to get chilled. After the first day she should go out for a little walk morning and afternoon, the time of her absence to be gradually lengthened as the puppies grow older.
Until they begin to crawl, valuable toy puppies are much safer and better upstairs in a big chair as described, or in a flat basket with a folded blanket at the bottom set upon the chair, than they can possibly be in any stable or in the kitchen premises, for, no matter how warm, such places are draughty too. There is absolutely nothing about a litter of little toys, if healthy, to be in the least offensive anywhere, and a good mother will keep them in the very pink of perfection for nearly a month under such circ.u.mstances.