Brief Review on Early Dog Care

Arabs gave medical assistance to their ill and wounded dogs, and even performed operations on those which had been wounded or disemboweled, but in the Christian world, until the eighth century, dogs were scorned and the only ones to have been treated with really great care were the hounds of princes. Slowly, however, dogs became objects of interest and affection and people began to take concern over their health.

Veterinary ignorance meant that many cures' were of little real use. Eleventh-century treatment for a rabid dog was to take the worm out from under its tongue, cut it into sections and bury it in a fig. The 'worm' was the stringy tissue running from the tongue to the lower part of the mouth. This practice continued until the nineteenth century.

Development of dog care
By the fourteenth century some wonderfully illustrated books had been published to aid huntsmen, teaching how best to employ dogs and also ways of caring for them. Kennels were to be situated in a sunny place, cleaned each day and provided with fresh straw and, following a hunt, dogs needed to be rested in a heated room with a fireplace and chimney. One must consider that at that time heating in peoples' homes was most unusual, except for cooking fires. Usually, a kennel boy slept in a loft above the kennels so that he was on hand to prevent the hounds fighting at night.

Recommendation for diet was meat and bread, and after walking each dog was to be rubbed down thoroughly with straw. Some manuscripts recommended that dogs were to be bathed each evening, doubtless a time-consuming business for the kennel boys who were also expected to spin the dogs' leashes, used to couple hounds when on a hunt. By the sixteenth century some people even allowed their dogs to sleep in their bedrooms, indeed the dog was working its way into people's affections, even in the Christian world.

The pampered pooch
In the days of France's Louis XIV (1638-1715) small dogs were pampered to excess, their coats crimped, cropped and styled to the fashion of the day. The money spent on hunting kennels had grown to sums of ridiculous proportion. The Italian Greyhound was the subject of particular pampering in the eighteenth century, considered too delicate for Britain and only suitable for 'the comforts of the tea table, the fireside carpet, the luxurious indulgences of the sofa, and the warm lap of the mistress'. Those taken out in winter were wrapped in warm clothing before setting out from the house.

In rural areas, the sheepdog, a firm favorite both as pet and working dog, was carefully nursed back to health when injured. An old tinder-box was used to light the fire to boil water, and the wounds wrapped in bandages made from old flannels.

Veterinarian care improves
Veterinary methods, at first more an art than a science, changed slowly as the centuries progressed. Dogs run to exhaustion were bled to aid their recovery, but it is likely that it was the rest which aided their recovery more than the procedure of bleeding. Owners also realized it was prudent to remove parasites such as ticks, which they did by rubbing the dog’s skin over with oil to stop up the ticks' breathing pores.

Dog curative remedies
Milk and water were used for washing deep wounds and a poultice made of bread and milk was laid on. Washed again, the wound was wiped dry with lint before being lightly covered with burned alum and wrapped in bandages for 10 days; clean linen was applied daily. Sore patches could be rubbed with powdered root of white hellebore and hogs lard but, if they failed to heal, butter was boiled and mixed with gunpowder. This was applied to the wound at night and washed off with vinegar the following morning. Usually three such applications would suffice. Ear canker was another troublesome problem in dogs and was eased as much as possible with shag tobacco boiled in water. The dog's ears were dipped into the hot mixture until it was two inches above the cankered part and the poor dog had to suffer this on three consecutive days. This so-called 'cure' caused the hair to fall out but this was usually restored by use of burned 'old shoe' mixed with hogs lard. Hogs lard was a useful commodity used also to rub the feet of pointers and setters following bathing in salt-water after work. Warm beer and butter was an alternative. Melted goose-grease, strained through a sieve, and mixed with spirits of wine and turpentine could be used as a dressing for shot wounds.