Note 124 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Arrian recommends confinement for full-grown dogs; but we must not suppose that the same treatment is suited to puppies. They, on the contrary, should have their entire liberty, as Nemesian remarks:
Cyneget. v. 172.
Sed neque conclusos teneas, neque vincula collo Impatiens circumdederis, noceasque futuris Cursibus imprudens.
This freedom from restraint is to be continued until they are eight months old, when they should be put into couples, and habituated to confinement:
Cyneget. v. 184.
Libera tunc primùm consuescant colla ligari, Concordes et ferre gradus, clausique teneri.
The whole of this department of kennel discipline is elegantly explained by the classic poet of Barga:
Petr. Angel. Bargæi Cyneget. L. v.
Ergo age duro Assuescant victu catuli, imperioque magistri Unius addiscant parere, atque unius omnes Nutus observare, et jussa facessere læti, Collaque præduris ultrò præbere capistris, Cum primùm teneros artus duraverit ætas, Et se jam sua per vestigia volverit annus. Antè autem cave imprudens concluseris usquam Aut loris vinctum, aut angusti pariete septi. Namque urent tenerum circumdata vincula collum, Impatiensque moræ sese conatibus anget: Ostiaque arrodens denteis obtundet, et ungues.
Blondus de Canibus &c. Libellus.
“Dùm non venatur, loris in stabulo vinciendus est; et siccis potiùs eduliis alendus quàm pinguibus jusculentis: hæc enim graviorem reddunt. Educendus tamen nonnunquam est è stabulo vinctus, in vicos tantùm, ut excrementis se exoneret promptiùs; mox iterum coercendus usque ad tempus venationis.”
“Now for the kennelling of greyhounds,” says Gervase Markham, “it is a right necessary action and must be performed with all diligence; for it breeds in the dog lust, spirit, and nimbleness, prevents divers mischances, and keeps the powers from spending till time of necessity: and therefore you shall by no means suffer your dog to be out of the kennel, but in the hours of feeding, walking, coursing, or when you have other necessary business to do about him.” But Arrian means more than mere confinement within the walls of a kennel by the term δεδέσθαι.
The greyhounds are to be actually fastened with a collar and strap or chain; and such, I am informed, is the customary restraint of the boar-hound of continental Europe. The dogs are chained along the walls of their kennel equidistant from each other, a row on each side of the sleeping-room.
A celebrated modern courser adheres very strictly to the system of restraint alternated with exercise, as recommended in this chapter, and appears to have found it conducive to his success at public meetings. Vide Sport. Mag. Vol. 71. p. 256.—Hounds accustomed to such privation of liberty, are said to start from the slips with great fire and speed:
Fracastorii Alcon.
Ita demùm libera colla, Cum res ipsa, ususque vocat, majore feruntur Impete.
p. 41.
According to the old proverb, cited by Rittershusius in his Commentary on Oppian,
Difficile est canem vetulum assuescere loro.