BREAKING ANP HANDLING. 65 



not very mild tempered when crossed unnecessarily, but in 

 the management of dogs they are patient, persistent, kind, 

 and fond of dogs withal. A man's everyday disposition is 

 no criterion by which to judge his temper as a trainer. He 

 may be amiable, refined, and attentively kind in social and 

 business life, yet, when training, may display terrible vio- 

 lence and unimagined fluency and resources of language; 

 on the other hand, an ill-tempered man may conduct the 

 training with the greatest patience and expedition; it can 

 only be determined by actual trial. 



Another prime requisite is that the trainer should be fond 

 of a dog, otherwise he will not be sufficiently considerate in 

 giving him time and opportunity to gradually and progres- 

 sively learn the many things required of him. Men are 

 intelligent beings of a high order, yet it would give the 

 greater part of them, endowed as they are with reasoning 

 powers, a severe task and many wearisome hours to learn 

 to solve and intelligently explain, with the aid of the best 

 masters, a simple problem in complex fractions, therefore 

 he should be merciful to the dog which, he declares, solves 

 problems by instinct with the disjointed instructions of all 

 kinds of masters. 



An exaggerated self-sufficiency, ignorance of methods, 

 misconception of dog nature and impulsiveness, each and 

 all detract from the novice's progress and efficiency. He 

 should aim, by study and observation, to gain a thorough 

 knowledge of methods. He should disabuse his mind of 

 the idea, if it exists, that there is an arbitrary, inflexible 

 method for training all dogs. To supplement the common 

 methods, he must have natural fertility of resources to cor- 

 rect any unusual trait which may be undesirably exhibited. 

 He should also recognize the fact that training is accom- 

 plished only by persistent, uniform effort; and without 

 effort there is no training. After a perusal of the following 



