BREAKING AND HANDLING. 143 



When the dog has learned to grasp the object, he may 

 have other disagreeable traits when he walks in. He may 

 run behind his handler on the right side or the left, and do 

 this repeatedly. This is faulty. He should be required to 

 stand squarely in front of his handler. When he runs be- 

 hind, the handler should not change his own position. Meet 

 the dog with a cut of the whip from the opposite side to 

 that which he ran by, and whip him back to his place. If 

 this is repeated a few times he will learn to refrain from 

 running behind. Speak kindly to him when he is in his 

 proper place, thus making correct acts pleasant, and faulty 

 ones unpleasant. The whip should be convenient to hand, 

 either lying close by on the ground, or placed under a belt 

 on the person. 



Other faults, some of which the amateur is predisposed 

 to treat with severity, should be indulgently considered. In 

 his first lessons the dog will grasp the object awkwardly 

 and will sometimes drop it from this cause, in which event 

 he should be permitted to again grasp it without punish- 

 ment if possible. When punishment can be avoided, it is 

 so much gained. By continued repetitions the dog will 

 learn to grasp it correctly, however backward he may be in 

 the beginning. He does not fully comprehend at the begin- 

 ing that he is to grasp it, as is shown by the fact that he 

 will simply rest his nose on it, thinking that he has complied 

 with the order, although some obstinate dogs will do the 

 same thing when they know precisely what is required. 



If the dog crouches and crawls between the feet, close the 

 ankles on his neck and give him several cuts on the nose 

 with the whip from behind. Two or three corrections will 

 cure this very common fault. The most difficult part of the 

 system is in teaching the beginning, and if pains are not 

 taken to correct these obstructive faults, they are a drag to 

 progress, and may entirely prevent the trainer from achiev- 



