Here is an important subject which should be well understood. No dog over six months old should ever have over two meals' per day, and regularity in eating is just as important in dogs as it is in human beings. Dogs should have plain food, but don't be afraid of giving them some meat once a day, cooked, and cut up small, avoiding fat, and also not feeding veal or pork, neither of which are good for dogs, beef and mutton are both good - we eat meat every day, and why not our dogs. Never feed lights, not digestible, and you might as well feed leather. Cooked liver is always relished by a dog, and once a week of cooked liver is a treat, it also acting as a laxative, but not much nourishment in liver and a dog fed too much liver would not thrive, gain much flesh, or keep in good condition. Now as to milk - I don't go much on too much sweet milk, don't think it is good for a dog, and if given milk daily, would soon get very tired of it. Sour milk once in a while, is better. Buttermilk is better yet, and in summer time I give my dogs all around, some buttermilk as an "extra.' once a week. As to feeding, I am writing now as to the older, or matured dogs, and not as to the puppies, as to their feeding being advised upon elsewhere.

I have on an average of seventy-five dogs in my kennel, and here is their bill of fare. For breakfast, which is served about seven o'clock in summer and eight o'clock in winter, they get Spratt's Patent Dog Cakes for their breakfast, fed dry, but broken up into small pieces (excepting to young puppies that yet require soft food and to be fed oftener than twice a day). This I break up with a hammer on the board walk in their yards, or in wet weather, on the kennel floor, spreading it out so the dog's don't get to fighting. I let them all pitch in and eat, which they do with a relish, and why shouldn't they? It is a prepared food for dogs, composed of beef, flour, oatmeal, bone meal, etc., in fact articles that a dog needs. When your puppies' teeth are developed sufficiently then they can have it, but broken up smaller. Spratt's Patent make a special prepared Puppy Cake, which is more suitable for the youngsters. See their page advertisement in front of book, or I can furnish you with it.

Spratts now Kibble their dog cakes, run them through a machine, so they are about the size of a hickory nut, and this saves the trouble of breaking it up - the dogs like it, although some of my larger dogs will take a whole cake and chew it up like a bone.

As a rule, it is best to feed it dry, although occasionally it is a good plan to moisten it with either hot or cold water or with soup. Dry, it serves the purpose of a bone and good for cleaning teeth, sweetening breath and is digestible. I let my dogs eat about what they want for breakfast, but if any is left, don't let it lay, but pick it up and save for next morning, in action it is a perfect regulator, and its use will give a dog a good coat, a clean breath and sound, handsome teeth. Until supper time, about five o'clock, they get nothing, and this is as it should be. The F. H. Bennett Biscuit Co. (see their advertisement), make a very good dog cake, called Maltoid Milk - Bone, made in the shape of a bone, and I have used this also, and the dogs like it. Now as to supper, the main meal, as it should be for a dog, here is the bill of fare as fed for years in my kennel. I get meat sent out from my butcher in Cincinnati daily, beef, mutton, and sometimes, a sheep or calves head or two and a big lot of fresh bones, and my man cooks this up in a big kettle, then cuts the meat up into small pieces and trims the bones down some, then in the soup we put Conner's Cooked Dog Food, which is a cereal, (see their advertisement), and makes a medium thick mush. Now when feeding time comes for supper, each dog is fed a pan of this mush in which is put some of the cut-up cooked meat, and this well mixed or stirred up in the mush, so the dog can't pick out just the meat. After supper, then the bones, every dog getting one or two to gnaw on - as their desert, and they all love a bone to chew up, which is good for all dogs. If any chicken bones, or small bones that they would be likely to split up and make slivers of, these are put in the stove, as they are dangerous. The soup is occasionally varied by adding to the cooking of the meat, vegetables, but which are hard to get here, and this adds a relish to it. You must use your judgment as to how much meat to give each dog, some dogs that are too fat, and too greedy, must not be given all they would eat. If a dog leaves any of his meal in his pan, don't let it remain there to get stale, but gather it up. -Quite a lot of the dogs, those I can depend on to not fight at meal time, are fed together in the main yard from traps or larger pans. Pans are all gathered up and washed that night so as to be sweet and clean for next day - cleanliness very important always. Now comes the "dessert" - the bones, which we throw out in the yards so that each one has a large bone to gnaw on - and don't they enjoy this. We watch them while they are at the bones, where "the push" are together, to guard against fights that might occur, as dogs, like some children, are selfish and greedy, and try to take the other dog's bone from him. Generally, a word from me will stop this trouble, but if not there is a whip handy and it is properly used to quell the disturbance promptly. Chicken bones, or any small bones like from a lamb chop, are very dangerous - bones that they can chew up into slivers; as you must know that all such must pass down and through all the intestines, which means a dangerous, risky trip, as it is not straight, but a very winding and crooked one, the great danger in this sliver, if it passes through the throat, is in puncturing or getting lodged in its trip through, which would mean death to the dog. Burn all your Chicken Bones excepting the necks.

Vegetables and rice mixed in the mush you have made are very good for a change, and the bill of fare can be thus varied once a week or so, which will be appreciated by the dog. Carrots and beets are the best to use, cabbage not agreeing with all dogs; potatoes are too fattening and possess very little nourishment. A baked sweet potato is relished by dogs, but the same objection applies here, besides leaving a sweet taste, and dogs should never have anything sweet.