366 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
until you are ready to receive it. A perfect retriever 
is a delight to the hunter, and an ill-trained one a curse. 
After the dog has learned to bring the glove to your 
satisfaction, tie some stiff feathers around it. It then 
has the appearance of a bird, and smooths the way to 
his retrieving ducks. As young dogs are of a wander- 
ing disposition and like to stray from home, the nicest 
way to break them of the habit is to contract with some 
small boys that when they catch him from home, they 
will coax him to them and thrash him soundly, at the 
final whack telling him in fierce language to ‘ Go 
home!” A few whippings of this kind inclines the 
puppy to think that he will get punished everywhere 
but home, and teaches him to avoid small boys. When 
the dog has arrived at the age of ten or twelve months 
he is like a boy in his teens,—he thinks he knows it 
all, and you will find that you must have a day of set- 
tlement with him; for some time, with sullen mien, he 
will attempt to disobey you, and instead of complying 
with your orders, will show his teeth as an indication 
of the manner in which he is prepared to care for him- 
self. Watch out for him, and don’t give him the 
slightest advantage, but seize him by the collar and 
whip him untilhe is thoroughly convinced that you are 
the master, not he. I never hada dog that I didn’t go 
through the same siege with, and the best trained re- 
triever I ever saw, my Don, I had the hardest fight 
with. He turned on me, a perfect fiend. We had it 
rough and tumble, and when we were through he was 
subdued, and until the day of his death he never re- 
ceived another blow from me,—it wasn’t necessary. 
His intelligence was human; my orders to him were 
not commands, simply frank expressions of my wishes. 
