MR. PINEO'S KENNELS OF BAR ISLAND

August 1, 1900

PINEO'S KENNELS
Rodick's  (Bar)  Island The Home Of Blooded And Costly Dogs.

It is doubtful if many people right here in Bar Harbor realize the magnitude of the business of breeding pointer dogs which is being carried on right under their eyes by Charles B. Pineo at his Bar Harbor Kennels on Rodick's or Bar Island, as it is possibly better known, writes the Bar Harbor correspondent to the Bangor Commercial.
Mr. Pineo has been carrying on this business for many years and started in a small way, by his careful management, fair dealing and successful business methods it has grown steadily until today the Bar Harbor Kennels are said to be the largest devoted to pointer dogs in the world and are well known to every owner of hunting dogs.
The scene is a very interesting one.  There are at present about 200 dogs and puppies in the kennels and their aggregate value is about $10,000.  The dogs have the most ample accommodations.  They are often given the liberty of the island but even when shut up they have plenty of room.  The kennels are right in the woods and are surrounded by trees.
There are several buildings and each dog has a private yard of his own fenced in by wire nettings.  These yards are 30 feet wide and 100 feet deep.  In connection with these yards are boxes which are six feet long, three feet wide and four feet high.  Each of these boxes contain smaller ones which are always kept full of clean straw and which are the sleeping apartments of the canines.
In the matter of food the dogs are not stinted, as a glance at their plump, well conditioned bodies would at once show.

Mr. Pineo purchases in Boston a half ton of dry bread each month.  This bread is gathered from the different hotels and dried until the moisture is out of it, so that it will keep sweet for a long time.  This is fed to the dogs dry and sometimes soaked in water in which meal has been boiled.
The chief article of diet, however, is a sort of a composition food, which is cooked daily.  In the cook house is a large kettle that holds a barrel of water.  This kettle is set in a furnace.  After the kettle is filled with water, fresh meat and bones are put in and boiled until the mixture is cooked, the meat boiled from the bones and the marrow boiled out.  The bones are taken out and the fat  removed from the top of the water.  White wheat is than added to the mixture which is cooked until the wheat is cooked.  When cold this cuts out hard in blocks and forms a food of which the dogs are very fond.  The animals also get fish and corned beef occasionally and have raw meat twice a week in the winter and once a week in the summer.
There are two chief buildings besides the cook house.  One of those is 30 feet square with a hall 10 feet wide running through the center.  On either side of the hall are rooms 10 feet long, and five feet wide, with partitions of which are all of two inch plank.
Each stall or room has a plank door with lock, and each has a box in winter and a bench in summer.  The stalls are heated in winter by hot water pipes.  Back of this building is a yard 100 feet by 200 feet, surrounded by an iron fence six feet in height.  This building is used for the stud dogs and for brood bitches.  The yard is, of course, for affording a place for exercise.
There is another building 100 feet by 120.  This building too is for females and their families.
The pride of the kennels is young Ruip Rap, in 1897 and 1898, the champion pointer of the country, a record which he earned by winning six field trials and defeated all competitors.  He is a son of Champion Rip Rap and his mother was Pearl's Dot, America's most famous pointer bitch.
Young Rip Rap is black and white, well marked, slightly ticked, dark hazel eye, white muzzle, blaze face and black nose.  He is a most powerful dog, deep through the chest, clean throat, good shoulders, strong coupling and good bone.  There is no waste timber about this fellow.  After looking him over carefully, it is no wonder that he ran some of his competitors to a standstill, or that he can run heat after heat in the hot sun in the middle of the day.  Unlike many of the field trial winners he is a show dog.  He has a good muzzle, clean cut head, good ear, well put on, good feet and his muscles stand out like muscles of a race horse.
Young Rip Rap combines in the highest degree the three qualities, high breeding, good form and great field ability.
Rip Rap is a very clever, obedient dog, hunts by hands or whistle.  He is handled by Mr. Gray of Appleton, Minn. who trains many of the dogs from the Bar Harbor kennels.  rip Rap is five years old and at present weighs about 55 pounds,  when ready for field trials he is from five to ten pounds lighter.
Mr. Pineo values Rip Rap very highly and it would require four figures to purchase him should his owner be willing to let him go.  Rip Rap is now earning from $2,000 to $3,000 a year.  When running, he brought home some $1,500 in cash prizes.  The marking most fancied in pointers is white muzzle and blaze in the face extending down over the eyes.
Some of the females bring their owner in from $300 to $500 a year.  From four to ten is an average litter of pups.  Some of the dogs which Mr. Pieno prizes most highly are lghtfield Bang, No. 54.321, Major Jingo, No. 52.047.  the Earl, No. 56.474, Zelia Strideway, No. 42.754, Kittie Gibson, No. 50.425 and Mother Sabine, No. 51.019.