BREAKING AND HANDLING. 177 



very imperfect or absent, and less frequently ones in which the 

 hunting instinct is also weak or absent, yet these instances are 

 extremely rare and are not race characteristics; they are 

 freaks of nature mentally as others are freaks physically. Ex- 

 cept in infrequent instances, the instinct is displayed at some 

 period during puppyhood, although different families and in- 

 dividuals vary greatly in respect to the age at which it devel- 

 ops. Occasionally it is dormant until a comparatively late 

 period. Many dogs, remarkable for their superior field powers, 

 showed no pointing instinct before maturity; however, in 

 most instances it is exhibited in the first year, commonly the 

 first months, if proper opportunity is afforded to exercise it. 

 The pointing capabilities vary in the same individual at 

 different times, undoubtedly attributable to the effects of 

 cold, or other bodily indisposition; for the dog, like his 

 noble lord and master, has his hours or days of depression 

 when, consequently, his work is irregular in quantity and 

 inferior in quality. 



On the mistaken assumption that the instinct is due to 

 education or that it needs intensifying, it has been said that 

 it is a very beneficial act to take a pregnant bitch on birds, 

 even when she is near the last period of gestation, so that 

 the instinct may be strongly impressed upon the puppies. 

 The hunting instinct of the dog is not dependent on any tri- 

 fling efforts of man for its perpetuation. Disuse for a short 

 period does not impair it to the extreme degree laid down 

 by theoretical writers, many of whom evolve a theory from 

 their imaginations; then the theory, by repetition, rises to 

 the dignity of a fact in popular estimation. As a case in 

 point, the instinct to hunt rabbits is quite as strong in the 

 pointer and setter as the instinct to hunt birds, simply be- 

 cause both are their natural prey. This instinct has been 

 restrained and forcibly repressed by sportsmen and trainers 

 through an unbroken number of generations. Constant 



