~ 380 ~ Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2021; 9(4): 380-382 E-ISSN: 2320-7078 P-ISSN: 2349-6800 www.entomoljournal.com JEZS 2021; 9(4): 380-382 © 2021 JEZS Received: 28-05-2021 Accepted: 30-06-2021 Dr. R Selvakkumar M.V. Sc., Ph.D., (LPM), Assistant Professor and Head, Veterinary University Training and Research Centre, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India Corresponding Author: Dr. R Selvakkumar M.V. Sc., Ph.D., (LPM), Assistant Professor and Head, Veterinary University Training and Research Centre, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India Dog rearing practices adopted by Rajapalayam dog breeders in its native tract Dr. R Selvakkumar Abstract A study was conducted in the breeding tract of Rajapalayam dog breed to record the rearing practices adopted by the breeders. (Housing, feeding and health management). Majority of them (89.58 per cent) maintain their dog with an individual shelter provision inside their house. Majority (72.92 per cent) of the dog shelter is having concrete finishing. From the survey, it was observed that only 33.33 per cent of the survey population vaccinate their dog against Rabies and about 60.42 per cent of them vaccinate their dogs against all diseases. Around half of the surveyed population dewormed their dogs at six month interval. More than fifty percent of the respondents followed the external parasite control measures. Most of the dog breeders did not prepare any special food for their dogs/pets. Whatever they were preparing for their use has been share with them. Keywords: Rajapalayam dog, breeders, rearing, practices Introduction The Rajapalayam dogs are more familiar among the pet owners and breeders as guarding dogs due to its delightful appearance and hardy nature (Figure 1 & 2). Rajapalayam Taluk of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu, India is the breeding tract of this dog breed. History is replete with information about the origin of this dog but no solid evidence exists to prove its exact origin. The Rajapalayam dogs have a pure white coat colour with pink colour skin. The peculiarity of this breed is the pure white coat with pink colour nose. However, most of the people were unaware about the authentic details of this breed. The main reasons for such oversights being the unavailability of scientific studies about this dog breed. Keeping this point in deliberation, a study was carried out collect information on rearing practices followed by the dog owners to sketch a scientific package of practices of the above indigenous breed of dog. Materials and Methods The study was conducted in the breeding tract of Rajapalayam dog breed. The breeding tract of this breed is Rajapalayam Taluk of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu. Dog owners who maintained this breed for more than five years were randomly selected. To record the existing rearing practices (Housing, feeding and health management) a structured questionnaire was prepared and necessary information was collected from the dog owner by direct interview. Result and Discussion The various parameters related to housing, feeding, vaccination and deworming were listed in the table 1. Majority of the Rajapalayam dog owners (89.58 per cent) maintain their dog with an individual shelter provision inside their house. Majority (72.92 per cent) of the dog shelter is having concrete finishing. The research findings on preference for breed and feeding practices for dog rearing in Nagpur city of Maharashtra revealed that, most of the dog breeders housed the dog inside their home without any separate housing provisions (Sawaimul et al., 2009) [3] . The similar findings were observed from the dog keepers in Central Kerala (Kumar et al., 2004) [2] . In contrary, Hedge et al (2009) [1] reported that majority of the dog owners kept their dog in a separate house in Akola city of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra state.