The age-herald., 1902-05-03
How to Choose Puppy

animals. There are as many characters and individualities in a litter Of average setter puppies as in family as large as that in the daisy chain, and there is this advantage, that they are .'all twins and start level and do not take life time to develop in. Not only to those "in the fancy" but to any sympathetic per- son, and especially to children, even to those no longer in the nursery, the ex- cellent differences of puppies, their gifts and tendencies. growth and development, are clear attractive, and intensely ex- citing. There are those who pretend to be ahle to prophesy about them before their eyes are open. Such persons will take the snub-nosed, sleek round-belied whim- pering little atoms and lay them In pairs to sprawl on a bench, and after picking them up one by one with the finger and thumb by the backs of their rat nttle necks, so that they squeal worse than ever and put their tongues out, will de- liver themselves on the prospects or this one being a grand dog and that saga cious and most promising-looling female. All the time the person who ought to know most about them, their anxious mother, remains in a state of mingled anxiety and pride-pride that the gen. tlemen should take so much notice of them and anxiety for fear they may be dropped Two infallible rules for detect ing early promises are believed in by those to whom the canine nursery nys- teries are familiar and who are making an early choice, either because they arc promised a puppy or because some must reluctantly be sacrificed and they want to know which. Put all the puppies In row on the ground, foot rom tnelr mother, and do not choose those which manage to wriggle to her last, is one rule
 ''Stonehenge," dealing seriously with the selection of the survivors of greyhound litters If the sad necessity arises recom- mends the following, which for pure me- diaevalism cannot We think, be beaten: Let the puppies remain with their dam for a week Then hold each up by the tail the best ones will bring their legs well over t1eir head, and you can tell which possesses length and the promise of good ribs.
 Except when asleep, puppies of this age squeal all day long. When they be- gin to get their eyes open they also begin to crawl, for, like babies. they crawl be- fore they can walk. At this time the lit- ters are extremely interesting from one point of view, for whatever they are go- ing to turn out afterward, long dogs, short dogs, rough dogs, smooth dogs, they are all almost exactly alike in face, which Is why puppies" are spoken of as all one and the same and not by the names of their breeds Their noses are ridicuously short and broad often Ro- man nosed, which is more quaint than can be described and their foreheads and brows wrinked as with the cares of unnumbered years. When their weak lit- tie bleary eyes, which are generally rath- CT watery begin to open, the lines are in- creased by crows feet" and, with the strong marks down each side of their noses, as if their heads had been origin ally fastened on with wire, like cham pagne corks make them some of the most odd little carcicatures existing. When they begin to walk their bodies are generally round and fat, their feet big, and their tails thick at the body and tapering to a point Take litter of six setter puppies at this stage, start them all fair on their legs, standing up, and see what they will do. It will be noticed that they walk with their noses close to the ground, like hippopotami but with their tails up or stuck out straight, and that when they think they are going to fall they put their noses on the ground to help balance them At this time, too, they leave off squealing and try to bark, which they are inordinately proud of and
 
 bidding manner. Being too weak to stand the shock of barking, single bark is as much as they can usually manage at a time, and If they do this when walking 1t upsets their balance and they fall over. Sagacious puppies soon learn this and sit down to bark, getting up again to walk, and then sitting down for another bark. When once the puppies are able to make excursions on their own account they 1IOu f,t11 lfn11f fInJr deserve, become a daily and hourly ex- citement in any quiet family. In the coun- try house in which the litter have the run of the garden, or can even gain &C., cess to the back premises, life Is a series of constant excursions and alarms though it must be owned that the promising children make up for their mischief by an ample margin in beauty, character and the unconscious humor with which they invest most of their proceedings. When very small and only able to toddle about they generally keep near their mamma, who If the weather is fine, will bring them on to a lawn or grass edglng near shrubbery and often-as dogs are sociable by nature and sporting dogs have privileges-in sight of the windows
 Greyhounds, being usually kept away from houses on account of their habit of bowling at night, more often take the lltleT lO the Idrlnydru or 10 the DacK court and curtilage. Small puppies early develop the dog instinct for burying food Any old bones they can pick up they bury, and If they can find a hole ready made will descend into 1t, scratch out their own ridiculous little cache, and half cover the bone in 1t, using their noses as shovels. Then they perhaps discover that they cannot climb out of the prin- cipal crater, and howl as dismally as if some one had beaten them. Like small children they never try to exhibit the slightest fortitude, but howl and shriek at any mishap, If they are frightened if the cat scratches them, if a fly stings their nose. or if they think another dog is going to hurt them. When they can trot and even gallop a little they begin collecting. This, again, is extremely sug- l gestive to naturalists, who see in it the survival of the instinct which made the original young wolf or primitive young ancestor begin to pick up a living and
 carry what it caught or what it's mother gave 1t to its den. Puppies retain any amount of these interesting survivals,
 but keep the acquisitive and not the se- lective instinct. For some weeks they re- gard collecting as the one object in life
 with this curious condition, that as a rule they think nothing worth taking and 1 keeping unless they can obtain it in the | house. They sit on the watch at all the doors or keep an eye from a distance on l unguarded entrances, and then trickle | in like water when a sluice is partly l open. When beaten they admit that it l hurts. but they do it again as soon as 1 the door is left ajar. Single puppies, pup l pies in pairs puppies In strinps nav