's theory in the rearing of Irish Wolfhounds, or any
other dog in whom great size is aimed at. In the week after weaning
the meals began at half-past five in the morning and finished at
ten o'clock at night. In the next week they were cut down to eight
meals; the next week seven, the next week six; the next fortnight
five; and then, for a long time, the number of meals served to
these young princes of their breed each day was four. The object in
all this was threefold. First, the Master held it necessary that
these pups should have as much nourishment as they were capable of
assimilating with advantage; secondly, he was anxious never to
spoil their appetites by permitting them at any time to experience
surfeit; and, in the third place, he believed strongly in light
meals for young hounds, as distinguished from the sort of meal
often given, which leaves the puppy fit for nothing but the heavy
sleep of the overeaten. Tara's pups romped after their meals, and
slept before them. Their digestions were never overtaxed, and their
soft, unset legs were never overstrained by the extremely bulging
stomach which many breeders associate as a matter of course with
puppyhood. This the Master held to be a point of great importance
with hounds of this kind, whose limbs take just as long to harden
and set as those of any other breed, while their increase in weight
to be carried on those limbs is enormously rapid, at all events in
the case of such whelps as those of Tara's.

For instance, at the age of five weeks Finn weighed just over
fourteen pounds. Sixteen days later he weighed 22 lbs. 2 ozs.,
while the other three pups weighed respectively on the same day 20
lbs., 19 1/2 lbs., and 18 3/4 lbs. Growth at the rate of just half
a pound weight per day is growth which requires a good deal of wise
feeding and care. At the age of twenty weeks Finn weighed 91 [sic] 1/4
lbs. Puppies' legs are easily bowed and rarely straightened. Finn
and his brother and sisters were never allowed on damp ground at
this period. It was rarely that they were out of the sight of
either the Master or the Mistress of the Kennels for more than half
an hour at a time. As the Master said, breeding champion Irish
Wolfhounds is no light undertaking. The Mistress of the Kennels was
the more inclined to agree with him for the reason that it was her
province to see to it, even when the pups were having their nine
meals a day, that the same kind of meal was never served t