a funk which, in nine cases out of ten, is permanent.1 How to make him come to heel or to his proper place is treated of later on; and how to handle him so as to put him at once beyond the possibility of being "gun-shy" is of vital importance. A gun-shy dog, it goes without saying, is useless to a sportsman. The very mention of the word carries consternation with it. The wretched animal proved to be suffering from this vice, or disease, or whatever you please to call it, is straightway doomed to destruction; and were he the handsomest and best-tempered dog in the kennel, the sentence is ruthlessly carried out without loss of time; and so apprehensive are the purchasing public of being "let in," that advertisements akin to the following, which appeared in the 'Field' quite recently, are occasionally met with. Condensed it runs as follows: "Messrs Warner, Sheppard, & Wade will sell 'Bang,' 'Rex,'' Don,'" &c., naming seven pointers. "All are steady and reliable dogs, and have been heavily shot over. 'Box,' a firstrate no-slip retriever. All above are warranted not gun-shy." What would be thought, I wonder, of an advertisement describing a hunter as "a very fine fencer and temperate, suitable for an elderly gentleman, has been broken." Yet the latter advertisement is no more ridiculous than the former. How dogs that are afraid of the gun can be described as heavily shot over and perfect no-slip retrievers passes my comprehension. If the adver some tisement means anything, it means presumably to satisfy those who look upon the failing as hereditary taint latent in the canine race 2-a taint of a most mysterious nature, ready to break out with complications at any time, like the influenza, and conclude that "Rab and his friends I mean Bang, Rex, and Co.having had many attacks, have outgrown the disease, and are not likely to have any more. "Shirley's dogs often turn out gun-shy," said a friend to me when we were one day conversing on things canine. Now, no dogs "turn out" gun-shy, whether they belong to Mr Shirley or to any one else; they are made gun-shy by the ignorance and imbecility of the keeper or breaker to whom they are intrusted for their education. cation. A gun-shy dog is simply a timid dog mismanaged in breaking. The same dog would almost to a certainty be a whip-shy dog, or an umbrella-suddenly-opened-inhis-face-shy dog, to make rather a long adjective of it. two or three puppies were playing in a farmyard, and a pack of hounds came suddenly through, the servants cracking their whips after the stragglers like pistolshots, what would the puppies do? Bolt, every man of them—one to the stable, another to the byre, another among the ducks and geese. One, however, it might be, would stand his ground longer than the rest. Say, on the other hand, that the hounds were passing some fields away, with the Say that 1 "Goad, I wudna wonder if he's rinnin' the sheep," I once overheard a Lowland keeper remark, whose dog had unaccountably disappeared; and “rinnin'” them he was with a vengeance, being about three-quarters of a mile away with a lot of "Cheviots" in front of him; and this man had had the dog under his charge from puppyhood in a country where there was little else than sheep! 2 When I advertised recently two puppies for sale, six weeks old, an individual wrote to ask if I would guarantee them not gun-shy! same pistol-shots going off, what would the puppies do then? cock their ears all of them and trot a little nearer, led by the most courageous, to hear what the commotion was. Dogs and human beings are in no wise different from one another in some important particulars. Some are constitutionally bold, others timid, and the more timid a dog is, the greater the distance should be between him and the gun when he hears it for the first time, and when you propose to accustom him to the sound of it. If keepers appreciated this axiom, and would take a little trouble, a gun-shy dog would be a rara avis indeed; and I am bold enough to say that any dog can be put beyond the possibility of becoming gun-shy in half-a-dozen lessons of ten minutes each. Some keepers take a considerable amount of trouble in teaching their dogs to fetch and carry; but it never enters into their calculations that a puppy may fail in the most important particular, or that it is in their power to avert what possibly may happen on the twelfth of August, or the first of September. A young and rather timid dog is taken out, generally on a cord; a right and left, perhaps from more than one gun, is suddenly fired nearly over his back. The noise frightens him, the restraint of the cord makes matters worse, and he is thoroughly cowed. "Damn the brute, he's gun-shy," says some intelligent sportsman ; "shoot him." "So he is," says Donald. "That is a peety; the very puppy the maister picket oot for hissel' -the best-looking o' the lot." Neither he nor his master, when he draws him aside that evening and tells him with bated breath the result of the puppy's first day, has the slightest idea that any one I have read many recipes, but this fairly beats all. A surer way of ruining your dog could not be devised. You are simply recommended in cold blood to create the disease and then give yourself the task of curing it. If the puppy's nerves are shattered," the harm is done, and he will fear the second discharge more than the first. You have now got a gun-shy dog, and though you may cure him, it will only be by the expenditure of an enormous amount of patience and perseverance. Some keepers are in the habit of firing a pistol before feedingtime, the meaning of this manœuvre being that the dogs may associate the sound with something pleasant, and in longing for their food, long for the noise that invariably announces it. The idea is not a particularly original one, and the success or otherwise of the system depends on the size of the pistol and the disposition of the dog. A large pistol would undoubtedly brighten a timid dog: a piaci xy might not. Peace keepers with many doga under their sharge lay in a stock of the weapons in question, from the old-fashioned to the modem Deringer' to mit their patienta Bas why, I would aak, run the risk at all! Why dre a piati, large or amall, rear a young dog all you know he will not be afraid of it! I have said, and I repeat, that any poppy can be put beyond the possicility of being ga-hy in half-a-dozen stort lessona Ganabyneas in a dog is no more hereditary than train-shyness in a horse. The naby dog and the train-by horse have been made so by mis management. Both can be cured, and can be made in time to lock on their pet aversions, the gun and the train, with equanimity nay, more, in the case of the dog with affection; but, take my advice, educate the animals in question properly: you will find it very much easier than curing them when spoilt If you have a pair of young horses that have never seen a train, to put them in the family barouche, containing the wife of your bosom, drive them to a level-crossing, and after fastening them to the gates, wait contentedly for the approach of the "F.ying Scotsman," would be-putting it mildly-injudicious. Instead of adopting this plan, you halt your horses on the approach of a train at some considerable distance from the line, and if they are not frightened, take them a little nearer on the next opportunity; or-what is far better-you turn them out when still young into a field by the side of the railway, and leave them ab solutely free and unfettered to gallop away as far as they like when they hear the engine coming. The very fact of their being free robs the situation of half its terrors, the rice reta shorter day by day. and before very one mey take line or no actice of its accroach Pursue the same tactics with your dog when accustoming him to the gin. The modus perands—simple enough in all conscience scobi be as follows. Take him into courtyard with a rate to in, or into a feld behind a wire fence, or into any enticed space where he can see what is going on outside. Do not restrain him by a cord or chain. Leave time to run about or retreas should he feel so inclined. Send your keeper & long way co-say 150 yards the more timid the dog. remember the greater should be the distance make him fre a shot, watch the dog, and you will at once see bow mich nearer—if at all—the shot should be fred next time. After a few shots he will probably be eager to get up to the gin, more especially if you make the day a pleasant one and give him sece thing to look for. All this seems much ado about nothing, and keepers are above taking trouble of this sort, but if you have a valuable dog he is worth making sure of. I have two bitches just now, beautiful workers, very keen, and very fond of the gun. Both, I am confident, would have been made gun-shy had I not been careful with them. You must judge by the disposition of the dog how much care is necessary: never risk a shot close by at first, however bold the puppy seems; for remember once the harm is deze it can't be undone save at a vast expenditure of time and patience. When I began breaking retrievers many years ago, I had a wenderfully reliable old deg, and the method I adopted when commencing a puppy's education was to couple the recruit and the veteran together. The cid one was steady as the Rock of Gibraltar, and nothing would induce him to go till told, and when the young one forgot himself and sprang forward, I could instantly get hold of him, check him, correct him, and give him his head again. I broke dogs fairly well in this way, but it is not the right way: besides, if you haven't the reliable old dog, you are ruined-horse, foot, and artillery; for to couple a young one to one on which you cannot rely is to spoil both: moreover, one man one dog may possibly be in the programme "when we come in again." The reason I took to coupling, as far as I recollect, was to endeavour to prevent a pupil constantly straining on a cord. I had never in those days met a thoroughly capable breaker. I had seen dogs taken out season after season, constantly pulling at their keepers and their keepers pulling at them,- for a dog is like a horse, the more you pull at him the more he pulls at you; and by using the couples I hoped to restrain a dog without making a puller of him. I was, as I have said, fairly successful; but, I repeat, it is not the correct way. A thing I detested and eschewed altogether was a whip now I am never without one, because I have learned how to use it. If you see a dog afraid of a keeper when he cracks his whip, or skulking behind, or inclined to bolt, you can have no surer proof of the man's imbecility and cruelty. When you call to a dog and crack a whip to emphasise your order, he should come bounding up to you, not run away from you. "Here I am," he says; "I've done nothing wrong, and I'm not afraid." He should look on the whip-and dogs which have been broken by a capable, eventempered, and humane keeper do look on it-simply as a deterrent. They know when they deserve punishment, and they know when they don't; and it is beautiful to see a bold and dashing, yet perfectly steady, dog with as much confidence in his master as his master has in him-a dog which, after his education is finished, is never touched with the whip from one year's end to the other. I have seen men flog dogs as you beat carpetscruel and lazy ruffians, who have let the time go by during which with no correction they might have moulded the puppy into anything. Not even in the case of an old dog is this incessant and brutal flogging justifiable. If the animal has got to a certain age, you may kill him, but you won't cure him; and a man of experience ought to be able to decide when there is a chance of success if you persevere, or when education is degenerating into cruelty. The education properly so called of a retriever may be shortly summed up, and may be said to consist of only two lessons. Not much to teach him, you will say; true, but you must keep him at both till he has thoroughly mastered them. These lessons may aptly be subdivided under two heads: Steadiness and Retrieving before you take him out shooting, and Steadiness and Retrieving when you have him in the field. It is impossible to exaggerate the 1 I once bought a setter from a man in rather a large way, who had a shooting adjoining mine. A worse-broken dog I never possessed. After the purchase I saw on two occasions dogs of his on the public road in full retreat for home!— dogs, I mean, which he had out shooting with him. A well-broken dog is never cowed. importance of lesson No. 1. On it depends the dog's whole future career-whether you are to keep him, present him to a friend who will give him a home, or endeavour to sell him. In the latter case, if you are an honest man, you will partly broken," only wants work," "will make a first-class dog under a good keeper," &c., &c., all of which means that the animal has beaten you and you want to get quit of him. If, on the contrary, you have to describe him as 66 are successful with him in his first lesson, you will be astonished how easily you will teach him his second. The very first day you have him out- be it on "the twelfth" or "the first "-he will be all but steady and retrieve his birds well, and before another month is over his head you will have a fairly good retriever. Now, how are we to make a dog reliable and steady? The first thing towards that desirable result is to teach him his proper place; and that, whether on the Queen's highway or on the moor, is at your heel, or, properly speaking, at your left side, with his head in line with your thigh, and this position he should never leave without permission.1 He should run when you run, stop when you stop, and wheel with you to the right or left as the case may be. In 'Training Dogs, and how to make them good Companions,' a recipe for making a puppy come to heel is given. It is this :— 'Begin by calling the pup to you by saying 'heel,' keep him close behind you for a little while, then pat him and say, 'hie on,' giving a forward swing of your right arm. Practise this persistently, preventing him with your stick from going in front of you, and calling him up sharply if he lags behind. Severe cases may be met by leading with a strap, but if possible a lead should be dispensed with. Accustom your dog to come to heel on your waving your right arm backwards." This is dreadfully "happy go lucky." 66 Keep him close behind you for a little while." "Call him up sharply if he lags behind." If you can do all this it is simple enough, the battle's won: but a headstrong dog would be all over the place; a timid one would probably lie down if you called him "sharply"—more especially if you are flourishing a stick about. You will never teach a young dog anything, except disobedience, by such a course of instruction. The dog will not understand, and will not know what is expected of him. You must at first keep him always on the cord, but on no account allowing him to pull at it. If he lags behind or gets in front, give him a reminder by jerking the 1"Are the poor dogs, then, never to have a run?" I hear some one ask. Most certainly they are. It is of the greatest importance, more especially for young dogs, to have a grand gallop every day; and if you are fortunate enough to have a field, they should be turned out for half an hour, or longer if you can manage it, to enjoy themselves to their heart's content. During this time they should be entirely on the "free list." To try to enforce discipline is a mistake; and this you should impress on your kennelman, should you be unable to be present yourself. A dog chasing or being chased by his companions, and tumbling over and over in the grass, pays no heed to whistle or word of command, and you should not expect him to do so. When the hour for exercise is over, assert your authority again, watch your opportunity, and call each dog up, put the couples on if young ones are unruly, and march them back to their kennels, as the gentlemen in variegated suits are marched after work to their cells across the shingle at Portland or the dreary waste at Dartmoor. |
