In order to make the most of this sign the examiner should kneel behind the standing bitch and pass his hand between her legs to the abdomen. If she is of very large breed and at the beginning of the ninth week, when his wrist is between the legs and just below the outlet of the bowel he will feel with the tips of his fingers the posterior extremity of the uterus. On subsequent examination this will be found to progress backward - approach him - to an appreciable extent each day; and when at last it has gone as far as it can, whelping may be expected within twenty-four hours.

Beyond this sign there are others that indicate when the time of whelping is rapidly nearing. One of them is an enlargement of the breasts and the secretion of milk, and another the active movements of the puppies. During the ninth week these movements are generally perceptible to the eye through the abdominal walls when relaxed, as while the bitch is sleeping; and they can be excited by gentle taps with the fingers and felt by the palm of the hand.

But when a bitch is heavy with pups there is no mistaking the fact, hence it is unnecessary to dwell longer upon the characteristic signs. As for the early manifestations, as already stated, the earliest upon which any reliance can be placed is an increase in size and change in the shape of the uterus. In order to be able to detect this when it appears examinations of the abdomen should be made from time to time with deep pressure of the fingers, the subject meanwhile lying on her side or back, by which means some familiarity with the usual and non-pregnant conditions will be attained, and without which, of course, variations could scarcely be made out. If, now, near the fourth week there can be felt a tumor - or in doubtful language a swelling - quite deeply within the abdomen, there is decided possibility that this tumor or swelling is the enlarging uterus.

This evidence having been detected, if in the course of a week there is noticeable to the eye an increase in the size of the abdomen, the chances of pregnancy are decidedly good; and as these changes generally quite speedily disappear or grow more pronounced, all existing doubts are usually dispelled in the course of ten days.

But the inexperienced reader must bear in mind the fact touched upon in the foregoing, that some bitches go through the entire period of gestation without presenting a single sign of pregnancy appreciable to the ordinary-observer. Yet, as already stated, these cases are comparatively rare and not likely to occur often in the experience of one who is familiar with the important signs herein considered. At the same time he who doubts his ability to make a correct diagnosis, in the absence of an experienced adviser, will do well to take the same precautions up to the end of the ninth week that he would in positive cases.

Before leaving this part of the subject it is well to touch upon a few common notions in relation to it. One is, that the size of the abdominal enlargement is indicative of the size of the litter. While large puppies or a large number of puppies is the rule when the abdomen is greatly enlarged and settled down, yet the litter or the puppies, or both, may be small.

Many breeders must have noticed instances in which were presented signs of pregnancy, as abdominal, uterine and breast enlargement, and secretion of milk, in the ninth week, but at the end of it no whelps appeared. In like cases there would be every reason for suspecting that the puppies were either prematurely born dead and deposited in out-of-way places, or the whelping was normal and the offspring fell victims to the puppy-eating habit. And a discharge of blood for several days would be quite conclusive evidence that one of these misfortunes had occurred.

But the presence of milk, while corroborative evidence in such cases as these, alone would be of no real significance, for many bitches that are not in whelp have milk at the ninth week from season.

Returning to the essential management of the bitch in pup her diet must engage attention, for were she not fed generously and on nutritious foods it would be impossible for her puppies to develop properly and have good vitality at birth. Manifestly her requirements in the way of structure-building materials are much greater now than when she had to meet merely the wear and tear on her own body, and as she finds these in very considerable amount and convenient state in animal substances only, assuredly she must have more of them in proportion than when not in pup. But mindful of the facts already given great prominence in chapters devoted to feeding, the increase of the daily amount of meat, the most serviceable of these substances, must be intelligent, for the same penalties are inflicted for excess now as before impregnation.

In considering the use of this food the matter of preparation being of great importance can properly come first. Boiling is the common method of cooking, and against it nothing can be said if the water - broth - used in the operation is fed out with the meat, for then the most of the virtues of the food will have been saved, and especially certain salts, extracted by the water during cooking, which the mother must have to pass on to her puppies. And that these salts are indispensable to healthy osseous growth the following experiment has clearly demonstrated: -

A well-known German physician selected a medium-sized, strong, healthy bitch, and after she had been mated he fed her on finely chopped horse-meat from which the salts were to a large extent extracted by boiling for two ■ hours in distilled water. In addition to this she was given each day a certain quantity of tried fat. As drink she had only distilled water. She gave birth to six healthy puppies, one of which was killed immediately, and its bones were found to be strong and well-built and free from abnormalities. The other puppies did not thrive, but remained weak, and could scarcely walk at the end of a month, when four died from excessive feebleness; and the sixth was killed two weeks later. The mother in the mean time had become very lean but was tolerably lively and had a fair appetite. She was killed one hundred and twenty-six days after the beginning of the experiment, and it was then found that the bones of her spine and pelvis were softened - a condition known to physicians as osteomalacia.