Watch your dog every day as to condition of his bowels. A dog properly fed and exercised will hardly ever be troubled with constipation. I turn my dogs out into their yard each morning and stay there a few minutes and watch them. Their first inclination is to hunt a place and empty themselves (a dog's natural habit). If I find one that is constipated, by this I mean unnaturally so, where passage is too hard and crumbles up into dust by putting your foot on it, I watch that dog that night, and if still the same it gets a dose of castor oil the next morning, unless as sometimes happens,the bowels have meanwhile corrected themselves. No clog should go over twenty-four hours without a passage, and better if not so long. As to the size of the dose of castor oil this depends greatly on size and age of dog. Take a grown dog the size of a fox terrier or pug, by this is meant a dog over a year old, and you can give it a table-spoonful. If this don't work in an hour or so, repeat the close once. A clog a year old or over, like an English setter, could stand two tablespoons-ful at a dose, while the larger breeds like a St. Bernard, could stand an ounce and a half, which would be three tablespoonsful, or even two ounces at a dose. Some dogs, like some persons, are harder to physic than others, so that judgment should be used; the idea being not to give too much, but just enough to accomplish the desired result. Fluid extract of cascara sagrada is a remedy much used for constipation, and to the dose ofcastor oil from five to twenty drops of this can be added and given with it with benefit.

Puppies from six months to a year old should be given smaller doses in proportion to age and breed of dog.

Young puppies as a rule should have rather loose bowels than otherwise, and are rarely ever troubled with constipation.

Watch your dog's bowels, which is easily done by spending a few minutes each morning after it is let out in the yard. Often if only slightly bound up, or passage is a bit too hard, a little oatmeal (same as you cook it for yourself), or some cooked liver for its breakfast, or a good drink of buttermilk will loosen it up all right, in place of the oil. If passage is normal (shaped and not hard), do nothing at all. Every dog should empty itself at least twice a day and puppies oftener.

Some dogs are troubled with chronic constipation, and in such cases, use a laxative pill, several of which are made for dogs. I have found Clayton's very good.