(The following text is reprinted in part from “The Practical Stock Doctor”  edited by Dr Geo A Waterman, Prof of Veterinary Science, Michigan State Agricultural College, published 1909) Parts printed in VIZSLA NEWS, Jan 1970)

THE PROPER FOOD FOR PUPPIES- Puppies usually weaned at the age of five or six weeks. For about three weeks after that time it is advisable to keep them almost exclusively on a milk diet, allowing a little stale bread which may be broken in the milk, which should always be well boiled, as sweet milk unboiled not only engenders worms but also is liable to cause serious looseness in the bowels, owing to the marked difference between the cow’s milk and that furnished by the puppy’s mother. The former lacks the sugar of milk which strongly predominates in the mother’s milk.

FOOD FOR GROWN DOGS- No dog in health can be fed better than from scrapings from the table, whereby he gets a variety of diet, consisting of meat, bread and well cooked vegetables of all kinds. Potatoes are not so easily digested by dogs as other kinds of vegetables, and consequently should be well mashed. From the fact that a dog’s stomach closely approaches in character that of a human being, one may say that what is good for a man is good for a dog.

The old idea of keeping dogs on corn meal to a great extent is a very erroneous one, as it not only is deficient in nutrition, but is also very heating to the blood.

Dogs require some cooling food, which is only obtained through a vegetable diet.

HINTS ABOUT KENNELS- To begin with, kennels should be kept scrupulously clean and disinfected as frequently as is necessary, which is probably once or twice a week. I consider the most effective germicide to be a solution of Bichloride of Mercury. One part: Water, 1,000 parts: use with caution or Creolin sufficient is used to turn water white. The Creolin solution is non-poisonous and is very good.

Kennels should be located on high, dry ground having proper drainage, as dampness is apt to cause rheumatism.

Dogs should at all times have access to fresh, cool water.

As a summer bedding, nothing is better than cedar or pine shavings, as fleas do not take kindly to the odors of these woods.

Regular exercise of at least two hours a day is almost imperative to a dog’s well-being. Few is any dogs kept in the city get this amount of exercise and are in consequence more liable to sickness than dogs kept in the country, especially those that are at liberty at all times.

No dog should have a chain put on him before he is one year of age, except sufficiently to chain break him. A dog raised from puppyhood on the chain, which is a direct contradiction to nature, will, by pulling on the chain, combined with a lack of exercise, become ill-shapen in limbs and body. It is exercise and good feeding which develop our most perfect specimens.