BREAKING AND HANDLING. 67 



CHAPTER IV. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON TRAINING. 



The important subjects of ranging, pointing, backing, 

 reading, etc., are dwelt upon at length, not so much with 

 the intention alone of delineating the method of establishing 

 a mere training in certain acts, as to describe the manner 

 in which the dog should be developed and trained to the 

 highest degree of his capabilities, with due regard to his 

 natural powers and their subserviency to the purposes of 

 the gun. It usually requires a long, ample experience to 

 arrive at the highest degree of knowledge relating to field 

 sports. If the sportsman is left to his own resources, it is 

 generally acquired by slow, easy stages of evolution. No 

 small part of this imperfection and dilatory progress is due 

 to the common misconceptions respecting dog nature and 

 instincts. By searching continually for complications where 

 none exist; by assuming that the dog knows nothing but 

 what he is taught; by enforcing artificial systems which are 

 opposed to the dog's native capabilities, the true system, 

 which is in harmony with the dog's nature and instincts, is, 

 from its very simplicity, overlooked. Notwithstanding the 

 general distribution of the dog and that every sportsman 

 has more or less knowledge of the setter and pointer and 

 the manner in which they work when trained, but compara- 

 tively few know anything of the real refinements in handling 

 or training. This is thoroughly exemplified in the con- 

 strained manner in which the average dog works, or the per- 



