Mode of painting a canine illness (9)
I believe the answer is:
distemper
'illness' is the definition.
(distemper is a kind of health problem)
'mode of painting a canine' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'mode' could be 't' and 't' is located in the answer.
'a' could be 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day') and 'per' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for distemper that I've seen before include "problem for dog ..." , "Water-based paint" , "Colourful coat" , "Canine ailment - whitewash" , "Paint; canine disease" .)