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cord, instantly easing your hand again and accompanying the action by the words "Come back "-that is, "to your proper place." Have the whip ready in your hand to show him you are in earnest: a slight crack if your words are not attended to, or drawing the lash across his forelegs if he threatens to be wild, will be quite sufficient. When he understands this on a cord, keeps his place and does not pull at it, free him and try him without it; but on no account let him leave your heel, immediately you do so. Keep on cautioning him by word and deed, put him on the cord again, occasionally freeing him, and he will soon learn that you mean him to remain by you under either condition. Many young dogs are spoilt by keepers in their anxiety to get game. Rather than let one bird or even a wretched rabbit escape, they will slip a dog as if he was a candidate for the Waterloo Cup, often, by the way, instigated thereto by their masters, who, caring for nothing but the bag, shout at them if there is a moment's delay. Under such circumstances neither keeper nor dog has a chance. On the other hand, by keeping your pupil well in his place, watching a bird struggling in the heather, or a partridge running, as partridges only can run, for a fence, you may, it is true, occasionally lose your quarry altogether, but you will break your dog properly, and you will be rewarded in the long-run.

And now, having taught your pupil his proper place, how are we to teach him to retrieve? By pursuing the same tactics-beginning him on a cord, freeing him afterwards. Nearly every one begins

this part of a puppy's education by throwing something for him to fetch, and they are quite pleased if he bounds after it in the most perfunctory fashion, won't come near you with it, and finally, after you have entreated and retreated, throws it down under the impression that, notwithstanding all the trouble he has taken, you are rather displeased with him. The verdict of most keepers under such circumstances would be, "It's no' that bad for the first time." Now, it is as bad as bad can be. The dog has committed two faults, which, unless promptly eradicated, will cause you an endless amount of trouble. He has gone from your heel without waiting for leave, and he has failed in bringing the object "to hand"—that is, right up to you in his mouth, and keeping it there till you take it from him. A puppy, of course, is far more eager to go after a ball1 when he sees it rolling away, or anything else when flung away, than when he is checked for a couple of minutes. Then he is discouraged, and in most instances seems to forget all about it. By adopting the following method, however, you will soon get him to take an interest in his work, and he will learn nothing he has to unlearn. Put the pupil on the cord, and the object you decide on using in his mouth. He will in most cases be only too eager to take it from you. If he should hesitate, a little persuasion is all that is required. Keep him in his place exactly as you have been in the habit of doing before you asked him to carry anything. Take the object from him and give it him back. Should he drop it, replace it in his mouth,

1 A ball is a bad thing to use; they are apt to drop it, it runs away from them, and they take to playing with it. Something 10 or 12 inches long, and covered with cloth or leather, is much better.

always putting your hand under the jaw and keeping it there, telling him to "hold it." Make him wheel and turn with you as before, your great aim being to see that he carries the thing properly, comes right up to you when you tell him to "come on with it" or "fetch it," and holds it till you tell him to "give it up."1 The lesson should on no account be prolonged beyond a few minutes, and the puppy should not be rewarded till he carries the object back to the house, or to his kennel, as the case may be; for he should be made to do this, teaching him that what he retrieves is of value (Bevan) and is never thrown away. The lesson may be varied later on by throwing the object into thick grass or any sort of cover, which will make the puppy put down his head and use his nose, or over a fence to see that he holds to it under more difficult surroundings; but your main object at this stage, as I have just said, is to see that he retrieves quickly and cleanly, and always "to hand."

I generally finish this part of a puppy's education by making him retrieve a rabbit or two. It enlarges his ideas, and gives him a foretaste of what is to come. Accustom him to carry it first, then drag it across a field for a considerable distance, and let him find it by means of his nose. A rabbit is the best thing to use, for several reasons: you cannot get a partridge or pheasant at any time of the year; but the bunny, like the poor, is always with us, and he is particularly odoriferous, which is encouraging to a young

dog. Moreover, even if you can get it, a bird looks rather mean and dishevelled after rough treatment; but rabbits may be retrieved by two or three dogs, and dragged through hedges and across ditches with impunity. As Tate Sullivan said of the "ould families," they "keep their looks to the last."

Whenever the dog gets to where you know the rabbit is, call to him or whistle instantly. Do not let him linger if you can help it.

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Why, you don't give him time to pick the beast up," said a friend to me when we were watching a trial together. "No dog of mine, if he gets up to his prey, will come back without it," was my reply, and back came the dog at a gallop. Many sportsmen. - and good sportsmen too-will not let their retrievers carry ground-game till they are in their second or third season, believing that it makes them wild and inclined to chase. This I never could understand. If you have confidence in yourself, the more temptation you put in the way of a young dog the better, and hares and rabbits are the very things you require to steady him. I am convinced that Henry Michie,2 if you put him on his mettle, and he had to work against time, would take a dog, without a cord, among any number of the quadrupeds in question in three weeks after the animal had been intrusted to him. I mean, of course, if it had not been handledand spoilt-by some one previously.

Your pupil is now, let us suppose, perfect in this part of his education. He stays at heel with

1 It is useful to increase the length of the cord and give him more freedom, and eventually, of course, to dispense with it altogether.

2 For fourteen years in the employ of Mr Lloyd Price, and incomparably the best breaker and the most humane I ever saw-master of his work in every detail, careful to a fault, and ready with a reason for everything he does.

out a slip, retrieves without a fault, and does not fear the gun. "The Twelfth" has arrived, and you take him out on active service. A careless or over-confident man has now an excellent opportunity of undoing in one short half-hour, or very much less, the work of many weeks. The dog up to date may be nearly perfect, but he has never had the temptation he will be exposed to to-day. He has never seen a covey of grouse get up at his feet or a hare bound off in front of him. He has never heard shot after shot fired in rapid succession, or possibly been accustomed to any one's company but your own; still I repeat that, under a competent man, he ought to do well the first day. Ignorant breakers are always in a hurry to make their pupils retrieve, and even should the bird fall within 20 yards, and lie exposed to view, they send them for it. Do not fall into this error. The use of a retriever, roughly speaking, is to find birds that you cannot find yourself, and an intelligent dog will soon understand this. Many a time I have walked forward to pick up a bird in the heather, only to find that it wasn't where I thought it was. Either I had marked the place badly or the bird had run. "Where is it, my man? I can't find it," I would say to the dog. "Let me try," he would reply with eyes and tail,

and off he would bound the minute he got leave, understanding the whole situation.1 No. Steadiness is of more importance, to begin with, than retrieving. Of course you must put the pupil on a cord for the first few lessons. When a bird falls walk him up to it, cautioning him the whole way; pick it up yourself and put it in his mouth, make him follow you with it, keeping him in his place as of old, and giving him great praise when he does well. The bird, of course, will be strange to him, and he may not take hold at first readily, especially if it be alive; and feeling he has now got hold of something worth carrying, he may show reluctance to give it up when told: but if you have brought him up properly, I will undertake to say he will, before he has seen a dozen birds shot, receive them as readily, carry them as well, and give them up as freely as he did the article he was accustomed to in his more boyish days. How soon you may dispense with the cord and free him depends entirely on circumstances. Some dogs are much more headstrong and excitable than others, and must be treated accordingly; but one thing is certain, you can never be too careful with a young one. If you have more guns out than usual, and anticipate more firing, or if in cover-shooting you are sent

1 I have a young bitch just now, a very dashing and persevering worker, and steady beyond almost anything I have seen in so young a dog. When a bird falls she is so far from running in that she turns round at once and stands looking up in my face asking for permission to go. In that position she will remain as long as you like till she gets the word; then, reversing herself on her own axis, she is off like the wind. She has also a beautiful mouth, and used, when "at walk," to retrieve the ducks incautiously straying from the burn-side, very much at first to the indignation, but eventually to the amusement, of the proprietor,— and I am almost inclined to think of the ducks. One bird, to my certain knowledge, was retrieved three times, and when released from a somewhat embarrassing position would give herself a good shake and walk off, “no' a preen the waur," with that graceful gait which is the distinguishing characteristic of this domestic fowl.

to a "hot corner," put him on the cord again for a few minutes to see how he behaves himself. Moreover, you must remember that many dogs get keener as they get older, and that even in their second season they must be carefully watched.

dog of bad habits, more especially if of long standing: still, much may be done by bringing some intellect to bear on the matter; and if the animal is a favourite, and a handsome one, it is at any rate worth trying. The dog must simply be begun afresh; and patience and kindness, coupled with occasional correction, will work wonders.

When a retriever, after a long and trying hunt for a dead or wounded bird, returns with it I have read many recipes for

triumphantly in his mouth, he is -or at any rate ought to be made much of and caressed. The bird is taken from him and the incident is closed. When, on the other hand, he fails to find the bird, he is uniformly-as far as my experience goes-allowed to potter away or lag behind as long as he pleases. He is then whistled up sharply, and heartily damned for having kept people waiting, and in many instances he may consider himself fortunate to escape with the condemnation only. Now, the dog may have done as well, or possibly much better, in the latter case than in the former. He may have hunted honestly for a bird supposed to have fallen (some men's birds always do fall, although they are not always found); or the bird may have got up a drain, or there may be little or no scent. Every hunt, successful or unsuccessful, should have a definite termination; and the dog, when he has done his best unsuccessfully, and when he is tiring himself out in what appears a hopeless effort, should be called up, caressed, and told the bird has 66 gone away." He will very soon understand, accept what you say, and fall contentedly into his place again.

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curing hard-mouthed dogs. best plan, if you have one, is to present him to a friend. Such generosity is its Own reward. There is nothing more provoking than to have your birds mangled, and a perfect cure is seldom effected. When a dog is hard-mouthed with ground-game only-I have had three or four of the sort-he generally, according to my experience, improves as he gets older. It is certainly unpleasant to see a retriever shake a hare or a rabbit as a terrier does a rat; but do not be discouraged when he so conducts himself. Get him to come up with it as soon as possible, and take it from him, and he will in all probability outgrow the habit. Should he linger on the way, either to shake or to play with what he is fetching, a man should be sent beyond him with instructions to approach him stealthily as if to catch him. A whip may in some cases be cracked, but not too aggressively, or the prey will be dropped altogether. A dog followed up in this fashion will look round suspiciously and make for his master, always preferring to give up to him what he is carrying rather than to any one else. I had a young bitch once very hard on ground-game; so hard, indeed, was she that on one occasion when I was taking a hare from her she seized it by the head and smashed the bones with a very audible crunch. Not one minute after

wards she brought me a winged grouse alive without hurting a feather, and in fact she never did hurt a bird all the time I had her.1 To cure a gun-shy dog is not an impossibility, but it requires a great amount of tact and patience. I got one from a keeper in Sussex some years ago, his verdict on her being that she was gun-shy, and nothing would induce her to retrieve. I am quite sure a finer specimen of the genus could not have been found anywhere. She was so timid, poor thing, that her mode of progression was uniformly on her stomach. I was curious to see if anything could be made of her, and set myself the task of effecting a cure. I easily taught her to retrieve-by force of example-and very fond she became of her lessons; but she knew a gun-case whenever she saw it, and the instant I took the weapon out and began to put it together she bolted. She was, in fact, a typical specimen. I took her to Scotland with me, and at the end of six days-not consecutive, they were spread over nearly as many weeks -I shot a grouse when she was at my heel, sent her for it, and when she was hunting shot another right over her back, and the only idea in her head was to get the birds. Force of example again had a great deal to do with the cure. I let her go entirely free, taking a well-broken dog with me. For the first day or two she was sometimes 100 yards behind, but she came

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The worst fault, perhaps, that a retriever can commit is to run in." The animal puts up birds, demoralises other dogs, and leads to coarse and profane language. The owner is voted a public nuisance; and when every one is out of temper, he can only-like Wellington at Waterloo-"pray for the darkness." A dog that has run in persistently, and has reached a certain age, is virtually "past praying for." The idea of steadying him should be abandoned, and he should be constantly on a slip. Still I have seen a good job made of one when over three years of age by Henry Michie. The animal-she is still in my possession - when fourteen months old was a capital worker, and quite steady without a slip. I was too confident with her, took her to a grouse-drive-her first experience of driving, or of a "general action

without even a bit of string in my pocket, took the right of the line, where not one bird came my way, and in less than five minutes she was ruined. It is quite possible that had I killed a bird or two, and she had seen them fall, she might have remained quiet; but the continuous firing on the left and my enforced inaction drove

1 As recently as three weeks ago, on the 9th of May, a young dog of mine did what-as evidence of a perfect mouth-I have never seen surpassed. I had him out at exercise with two others in a grass field when I noticed he had something in his mouth. What it was I could not at first discover. He rushed off with it at full speed, followed by his companions, lay down two or three times, and off again-as dogs will do-when they got up to him. Presently, on his coming a little nearer, I noticed something like a bird's head protruding from his jaws, and calling him up, I took a young thrush from his mouth perfectly uninjured. Notwithstanding the excitement of play and the efforts made by the other dogs to catch him, he had carried it perfectly tenderly without ever closing his mouth.

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