It is better to wash your dog several days before the show, because the water destroys the natural lubricant, or that making the hair glossy. Curly-coated Retrievers are improved in tightness of curl by the use of cold water. CHAPTER XVII =Specific Ailments= DISTEMPER--RABIES--BLOOD-POISONING--RHEUMATISM OR KENNEL LAMENESS Under the title of "Specific" Ailments, the author deems it advisable to give a brief account of such diseases as distemper, blood-poisoning, rabies or madness, rheumatism, kennel lameness, or chest founder, these complaints having as their cause germs, or micro-organisms; the production of these ailments--in three of them at least--being due to the entrance of minute organisms into the system, the excretions, or poisonous products resulting in the several forms of disease, as named above. By far the commonest of these specific canine ailments is-- DISTEMPER This malady is only too well known amongst owners and breeders of sporting dogs, and to its almost constant presence in certain kennels the rearing of puppies is seriously handicapped. It is readily communicable from one dog to another--more particularly the young--either by direct or indirect means. Some kennels are singularly exempt from its presence, whereas others are hardly ever without it. In the latter case, the disease obviously exists upon the premises, measures for its extinction having been inadequately carried out. One would hardly credit the multifarious channels through which this canine scourge can be propagated. Feeding utensils, benches, the hands and clothing of attendants, hampers, collars and chains, bedding, water vessels, by contact of the diseased and healthy, and possibly by wind carrying the dessicated discharges, are all liable to become active agents for the production of the malady. So varied is distemper in its method of attack, that the most expert professional may ignore its existence. Previous to the development of the symptoms, there is the so-called period of incubation, _i.e._, the time during which the germs are, as it were, dormant, though in reality they are maturing, the advent of their maturation being the development of the specific lesions designated distemper. By far the commonest manifestation of this horrible canine scourge is that in connection with the mucous membranes lining the eyelids, and upper air passages. Possibly these are the chief portals for the entrance of the germs, and if the specific poison would only confine its ravages to these regions, the ultimate results would be of a much less serious nature.