BREAKING AND HANDLING. 73 



Many erroneous ideas prevail among novices in respect to 

 the theory of training. It is commonly supposed that the 

 setter and pointer are taught all branches of field work, 

 even to pointing birds ; hence, that stringent restraints and 

 continual efforts are necessary to subjugate them. No more 

 vicious theory could be imagined. They hunt naturally for 

 themselves and learn methods much more accurately and 

 effectively when left to their own experience and judgment. 

 These natural capabilities are simply controlled sufficiently 

 to subserve the purposes of the gun, and the process of 

 reducing them to this state constitutes training. If the dog 

 is inferior in any functional powers, the trainer can only 

 make the best of such material as there is. Any natural 

 deficiency is just so much gone from the dog's capabilities. 

 For instance, if the dog is devoid of the pointing instinct, 

 by giving a great deal of experience and training, he may 

 be taught to stop on birds ; but the act is then artificial and 

 could be taught to a hound or cur in the same way. It is 

 hardly necessary to mention that it is as inferior, when so 

 taught, as any work of art is inferior to that of nature. The 

 conjecture that at some uncertain period in past ages, in 

 some vague manner, the dog's hunting and pointing were 

 matters of education, should not be set against the fact of 

 any individual, natural imperfections in the present. There 

 is neither sense nor necessity in straining after far-fetched 

 theories to prove that the pointing instinct had an educa- 

 tional origin, particularly when the same instinct is present 

 in the pointer without any theory at all as to its origin. 



A proper training is the result of honest, diligent effort 

 and skill. Any system, professed to be a short, certain sys- 

 tem, by which a dog can be taught thoroughly in a few 

 weeks, by unusual methods, is either the result of a very 

 imperfect knowledge of training, or an utter disregard of 

 facts. Assuming the most favorable conditions, four to 



