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There are several features of vital import in Boston terrier breeding that the passing years have disclosed to the writer the imperative need of attention to. Most of these have been spoken of in this book before, but they seem to me at the present time to demand being specially emphasized. Feeding and its relation to skin diseases, I think, naturally heads the list.

I have received more letters of inquiry from all parts of the country asking what to do for skin trouble than for all other ailments combined. I think our little dog is more susceptible to skin affections than most dogs, owing to the fact that he is more or less a house pet, and does not get the chance of as much outdoor exercise, and the access to nature’s remedy—grass, as most breeds. At the same time if fed properly, given sufficient life in the open, no dog possesses a more beautiful glossy coat.

No one factor is more responsible for skin trouble than the indiscriminate feeding of dog biscuit. These, as previously written, are first rate supplementary food, but where they are made the “piece de resistance,” look out for breakers ahead. The mere fact of their being available under all circumstances and in all places contributes largely to their general use.

At the new million dollar Angell Memorial Animal Hospital, Boston, Doctors Daly and Flanigan have conducted a series of scientific experiments on dogs. I had talked with Dr. Flanigan, and stated my experience was that an exclusive dog biscuit diet was the cause of skin trouble invariably.

They selected forty dogs in perfect physical condition, dividing them into two groups of twenty each. To one was fed exclusively dog biscuits, and the other a diet of milk in the morning, and at night a feed composed of a liberal amount of spinach—they had to use the canned article as it was in winter—boiled with meat scraps and thickened with sound stale bread.

At the end of a fortnight seventeen of the first group were afflicted more or less with skin trouble, while the other twenty were in the pink of condition. To effect a cure, the spinach diet—called by the French “the broom of the stomach”—was fed, and the coat washed with a weak sulpho-naphtha solution. No internal medicine was given. In a month’s time the coats of the dogs were normal. Further comment on this is unnecessary.

Next in importance to spinach I place carrots and cabbage, boiled up with the meat and rice, oat meal and occasionally corn meal. Don’t be afraid to give a good quantity of the sliced boiled carrots, especially in the winter season when the dogs cannot obtain grass.

A short time ago, I went to see a group of trained monkeys and dogs perform. They both looked in beautiful condition, and on enquiring of the proprietor as to his methods of feeding, he said it was a very easy matter, as he had trained both dogs and monkeys to eat raw carrots while on the road, during which time he had to feed dog biscuits. When at home in New York he fed a vegetable hash with sound meat and rye bread, using largely carrots, beets, a very few potatoes and some apples. While on the road he had no facilities for cooking for his animals so he accustomed them to eating cut up raw carrots every other day. Previous to this he was bothered with skin trouble with both dogs and monkeys.

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.

Do not acquire the habit of getting rid of the matrons of the kennel when six or seven years old. Many bitches give birth to strong pups when eight or nine years old. I write, of course, of those in strong, vigorous condition, that have always had plenty of good outdoor exercise.

Remember, there is no spot on this broad land where the Boston terrier does not make himself thoroughly “at home.” What more can one wish?

CHAPTER XIV.