PARASITES.—­EXTERNAL.

FLEAS.

Washing with Spratts’ medicated soap.  Extra clean kennels.  Dusting with Keating, and afterwards washing.  This may not kill the fleas, but it drives them off.  Take the dog on the grass while dusting, and begin along the spine.  Never do it in the house.

TICKS.

I have noticed these disagreeable bloodsuckers only on the heads and bodies of sporting or Collie dogs, who had been boring for some time through coverts and thickets.  They soon make themselves visible, as the body swells up with the blood they suck until they resemble small soft warts about as big as a pea.  They belong to the natural family, Ixodiadae.

Treatment—­If not very numerous they should be cut off, and the part touched with a little turps.  The sulphuret of calcium will also kill them, so will the more dangerous white precipitate, or even a strong solution of carbolic acid, which must be used sparingly, however.

LICE.

The lice are hatched from nits, which we find clinging in rows, and very tenaciously too, to the hairs.  The insects themselves are more difficult to find, but they are on puppies sometimes in thousands.  To destroy them I have tried several plans.  Oil is very effectual, and has safety to recommend it.  Common sweet oil is as good a cure as any, and you may add a little oil of anise and some sublimed sulphur, which will increase the effect.  Quassia water may be used to damp the coat.  The matted portions of a long-haired dog’s coat must be cut off with scissors, for there the lice often lurk.  The oil dressing will not kill the nits, so that vinegar must be used.  After a few days the dressing must be repeated, and so on three or four times.  To do any good, the whole of the dog’s coat must be drenched in oil, and the dog washed with good dog soap and warm water twelve hours afterwards.

CHAPTER LII

THE DOG AND THE LAW

PRIVILEGES OF FIRST BITE

It is popularly, but rather erroneously, supposed that every dog is entitled to one bite.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that every dog may with impunity have one snap or one intended bite, but only dogs of hitherto irreproachable character are permitted the honour of a genuine tasteful bite.

Once a dog, however, has displayed dangerous propensities, even though he has never had the satisfaction of effecting an actual bite, and once his owner or the person who harbours him becomes aware of these evil inclinations (scienter) either of his own knowledge or by notice, the Law looks upon such dog as a dangerous beast which the owner keeps at his peril.

The onus of proof is on the victim to show that the owner had previous knowledge of the animal’s ferocity, though in reality very little evidence of scienter is as a rule required, and notice need not necessarily be given directly to the owner, but to any person who has charge of the dog.