Chapter XX.

1. There are many kinds of dogs. The Lacedemonian dogs, both male and female, begin to have sexual intercourse at eight months old. Some also lift their leg to make water about this period. The bitch becomes pregnant with a single act of coition; this is particularly evident in those which perform the act in secret, for they become pregnant when once united. The period of gestation in the Lacedemonian bitch is the sixth part of a year, that is sixty days, or it may be one, two, or three days more or less. The puppies when they are born are blind for twelve days. The bitch is ready for sexual intercourse six months after she has produced her young, and not sooner. In some the period of gestation is the fifth part of a year, this is seventy-two days. The puppies of such bitches are blind for fourteen days. Others are pregnant the fourth part of a year, that is three whole months; their puppies are blind seventeen days. The female appears to desire the male for the same length of time.

2. The catamenia in bitches last for seven days, and at the same time the genital organs are swollen with heat; during this period they will not endure coition, but during the seven days which follow, for they all appear usually to desire the male for fourteen days. This affection continues in some for sixteen days. The purification from parturition takes place at the birth of the young ones; it is thick and phlegmatic, and the quantity produced in parturition is small in proportion to the size of the body.[212] Bitches generally have milk five days before parturition; in some cases it appears seven, and in others four days beforehand; the milk is good as soon as the young are born. The Lacedemonian bitch gives milk in thirty days after sexual intercourse; at first it is thick, but becomes thinner afterwards. The milk of the bitch is thicker than that of other animals, except the sow and the hare.

3. There is evidence of their having reached the age of puberty, for as in the human subject the mammæ begin to enlarge and become cartilaginous; it is, however, difficult to detect this without practice, for the enlargement is not very great. This takes place in the female, nothing of the kind occurs in the male. The males generally begin to lift up their leg to make water when they are six months old. Some do not do so till they are eight months old, and others before they are six months old, for, to speak plainly, they do this as soon as they reach puberty; all the females sit down to make water; some, however, even of these lift up their leg for this purpose. The female never produces more than twelve puppies, generally five or six, and sometimes only one; those of Lacedæmon generally have eight; both sexes continue to enjoy sexual intercourse as long as they live.

4. It is a peculiarity of the Lacedemonian dog, that it is more ready for sexual intercourse after hard work than when idle; the male of this kind lives ten years, the female for twelve, most other dogs live fourteen or fifteen years, some even twenty, for which reason some persons think that Homer is right when he makes the dog of Ulysses to have died at the age of twenty. On account of the hard work which the Lacedemonian dogs have to endure the female lives longer than the male; in other races this is not so plainly observed, but the male is usually longer lived than the female. The dog does not shed any teeth except those called the canine teeth, these are shed by both sexes at four months old. Because they shed these only, a question is raised, for some persons altogether deny that they shed only two teeth, for it is difficult to meet with these, and others, when they see that they shed these, think that they must shed all their teeth. People judge of the age of a dog by its teeth, for in young dogs they are white and sharp, in old ones they are black and blunted.