THE kennel management of greyhounds, foxhounds, harriers, and other sporting dogs varies almost with each kind. Thus, greyhounds are most carefully protected from the weather by a roof to their yard as well as by body clothing, which is worn when in severe training. Next to these come hounds, and then pointers, setters, spaniels, and retrievers, all of which last are allowed a run into an open yard at discretion. In many cases this leads to colds and rheumatism, against which the best precaution is a sloping door for the opening into the sleeping chamber, hinged at the top, and made up at the sides with a Λ shaped piece of wood, but not at the bottom. This, when in its place, allows the dogs to jump up on to their beds, while it protects them from wind and rain when there, and can at any time be lifted completely up so as to allow of the kennel man entering and making all clean. The accompanying engraving shows a plan of such a door, with the dimensions suitable for the purpose, and from it any carpenter will easily be able to construct one. The advantage is too obvious to need dilating on it.

In the summer time a wooden bench, if protected in this way, and guarded from the wall by planking, needs no straw, which only harbours fleas; but in the winter it, or deal shavings, which do not harbour fleas, must be provided, and, whichever is used, it should be changed twice a week. The floor of the yard should be of glazed tiles, cement, or asphalte, and all the woodwork should be either painted or dressed with best gas tar, the latter being the better material of the two. If the look of the tar is objected to, it may be coated with lime-wash, which, however, requires a renewal at least once a year.

Sporting dogs are all better fed only once a day, and for those whose noses are of the utmost importance, viz., pointers and setters, the food should be almost entirely of meal, either made into biscuit or well boiled and converted into pudding. In either case, a very weak broth must be made of flesh or greaves, which is then used to boil the meal in or to soak the biscuits. Spaatt's and other biscuits have lately been introduced into general use, by which all this trouble is avoided - dried flesh, imported from abroad, being mixed with the meal before it is baked. I hare tried those of Spratt and Co. with great advantage on pointers and setters, when containing not more than ten per cent. of meat; but a larger proportion I have found much too heating, causing loss of nose, and a tendency to eruption. They should be given whole and dry, not soaked, the dogs breaking them up easily with their teeth; and they appear to agree much better in this way than when soaked. Two or three times a week, whatever may be the kind of meal or biscuit used, some green vegetables, well boiled, should be given in addition, by which means the blood is kept cool, the coat blooming, and the nose cool and moist.

Messrs. Spratt and Co. add a certain quantity of dates to their biscuits for the same purposes, but they are not sufficient for any length of time to supersede the necessity for green food in the case of kennelled dogs, who cannot get at. grass, which instinct prompts those at liberty to bite off and swallow. The number of biscuits required for a pointer or setter daily averages from 3 to 3 1/2, but some gross feeders are sufficiently nourished with 2 1/2, and others demand as many as 4 1/2 or even 5.

Last year (1881) Messrs. Spratt introduced beetroot into their biscuits with excellent effect, not only on the health of the dogs fed on them, but also on the appetite for them of delicate or petted dogs. I find by experience that the most fastidious feeder will eat them dry, and strongly recommend this improvement to my readers.

For large dogs, Calvert's carbolic acid wash, diluted with thirty or forty times its bulk of water, and used as a wash, forms the best application for fleas and ticks, and it is also useful as a vermin-destroying wash for the kennel walls and fittings, followed by lime-wash when dry. If preferred, the application described for pet dogs may be employed, or a small quantity of benzine collas may be rubbed in along the back.