How to Care for Your Dog

c. 1393

“As soon as you arrive home, be diligent that you yourself or your men ahead of you feed the dogs well, then give them fresh clean water in a basin to drink. Next have them put to bed on nice straw in a warm place, in front of the fire if they are wet or muddy… If you act this way, they will not pester people at the table or sideboard and they will not get into the beds. If you do not care for their needs well, know that when they have worked hard and are hungry, they will scrounge under the table or seize a piece of meat from the sideboard or the kitchen, and they will snap at each other and cause upsets to provide for their needs. In so doing they tire themselves and do not rest at all, and thus remain beggars and badly behaved, and this is your fault, not theirs.”

Le Ménagier de Paris

Wet, muddy dog in your bed again? The Middle Ages warned you.