The Quail 45 



will give the dog the tip that he is out with a 

 man with whom he may take liberties, and he 

 surely will act upon it. This is why so many 

 dogs, which are paragons of perfection when 

 under the eyes of their trainer, act so unruly 

 when loaned for a day or so ; this is why, too, an 

 otherwise faultily good-natured man will sternly 

 refuse to loan his dog. To dog owners the writer 

 would earnestly say, — never lend a fine dog, 

 except to a man who knows more about dogs 

 than you do, and even then make sure that the 

 borrower understands your methods and words of 

 command, else he may start talking what, to the 

 poor dog, may sound like Chinook, or Chinese, or 

 Esquimaux, or anything that is utterly unintelli- 

 gible. A dog is a poor linguist, and for this and 

 other good reasons the fewer and more sharply 

 distinct the words of command, the better. 

 Never roar at a dog, you are supposed to be the 

 more intelligent animal of the two ; and if you 

 never bawl your commands, the dog will never 

 guess that you possess the power to do so, and in 

 the field he will heed a firmly quiet command as 

 though it were the harshest you were capable of 

 delivering. Also omit the too common cursing. 

 The dog is clean-minded, and so does not under- 

 stand ; while a volley of profanity can only kill 

 the man's self-control, and possibly some of his 

 fun in the Happy Hunting-grounds. Keep all 



