When the conditions are normal whelping very generally occurs on the sixty-third day after mating, yet variations of one day, or even two days, either way are not uncommon and have no real significance.

Two or three days before the eventful period is expected the whelping quarters should be thoroughly cleaned out and washed with boiling water, for the purpose of disinfecting them and destroying all eggs of worms that may happen to be present. The bitch, also, should be treated for like purposes before she is returned to them, and with precipitated sulphur, the same being freely rubbed into her coat, over her breasts, and in fact every part from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail.

For bedding, perfectly clean, dry straw is the best where a platform of smooth boards is used. And, by the way, there should always be two or three platforms provided, for then frequent change will be possible, and each one when removed can be washed off, disinfected and thoroughly dried in the sun before it is again required.

On the subject of bed and bedding for whelping bitches much has been written which seems invested with unwarrantable prejudice. Probably the kind of bedding most often used is a piece of carpeting, blanket or bagging, yet bitches rarely take kindly to such and almost always tear it up when they can do so, or scratch holes in it unless the material is unusually strong. And where this has been done puppies have been many times caught in the folds and crushed by the mother.

Some breeders use the untanned skins of beasts for bedding, while others prefer to have the whelping occur on dry, clean earth, because as they say it acts as a disinfectant; and these latter maintain that puppies do far better on a bed of this sort than on any other. But such claims are extravagant. If soil is dry it must get into the nose, eyes and ears of puppies and cause them much annoyance if not real harm, while if damp it means death to them - that is, if they are of the nature of well-bred dogs of to-day. Again, cleanliness, the best of such agents, is all in the way of disinfectants that is required at this time, and certainly under no other condition is it easier to maintain it than when the bed is a platform, which can be removed at once after whelping, and each day following if necessary, and the bedding is straw.

With not a few breeders the final preparatory measure is a dose of castor oil or other cathartic, which they give indiscriminately in every case on the day before whelping. This treatment has so many advocates it is necessary to urge that it is advisable only when severe constipation exists, also, that were it applied in instances where the discharges were soft or liquid it would not only be superfluous but somewhat hazardous, since it might cause diarrhoea in the puppies. And this would very likely happen were castor oil given, for a portion of its principle is absorbed and goes out with the milk.

Boiled liver, which is also given for the same purpose, is open to even greater objections than castor oil or other medicinal cathartic, for its laxative action is attained only at the expense of digestion. Being exceedingly rich but few stomachs are capable of disposing of any considerable quantity, and given generously as a rule it generally proves too great a burden for them; and they tiring after a time pass a goodly portion of it, while yet only partially digested, on to the intestines, where it acts as any foreign body would and. sets up an irritation. After which diarrhoea, nature's method of freeing the bowels of troublesome matters, occurs, and it is several days before the integrity of the abused organs is restored. In the mean time the milk is more or less vitiated in consequence of the indigestion, and very generally causes a like disturbance in the nursing puppies, in which event they, also, suffer from colic and diarrhoea - symptoms that are singularly fatal in the first weeks of life.

In the highest order of animals constipation is a common affection during pregnancy, and the popular theory as to causation is that it is produced by pressure of the enlarging uterus on the upper part of the rectum, by which not only is its calibre diminished but its action paralyzed. A familiarity with this fact has doubtless led to the inference that constipation from the same cause must necessarily exist in bitches in pup and as urgently requires treatment. Yet no intimate knowledge of canine anatomy is necessary to detect its fallacy, and certainly experience tells that severe constipation is very rare in pregnant bitches that are healthy and have been well cared for.

Therefore let the reader put away this frozen notion that the bowels of all about to whelp demand interference, and that delivery will be difficult unless they are emptied by artificial means. He can accept as a fact that only when they are impacted with dry, hard waste, or, in other words, only when very severe constipation exists will they obstruct the birth of the puppies; also, that all ordinary accumulations will be readily expelled in the violent straining induced by the labor pains long before the first little one is sent into the world. He can accept, moreover, that no sound mother that is allowed ample exercise, is properly fed and has free access to good wholesome drinking water is likely to be troubled with constipation sufficient to retard labor. But should one so suffer, an injection of half a cupful of warm sweet oil or a pint of warm water is the only remedy he will be required to use.