224 MODERN TRAINING. 



the course up wind. It would seem to be an easy matter 

 to teach a dog to quarter, after reading the instructions of 

 authors. The dog is simply required to go to and fro at 

 right angles to his handler's course. As a matter of fact, 

 the first attempts will be far from accurate, and will have 

 very little resemblance to quartering; but with experience 

 and unremitting attention, he will slowly improve. The 

 training consists in holding him constantly as near as pos- 

 sible to these parallels, day after day and week after week, 

 until from the very force of habit he follows them without 

 any assistance or direction from his handler. After the dog 

 is proficient, he must be hunted against the wind continually 

 when at work the quartering dog which will quarter or 

 work well in any direction is so extremely rare that he does 

 not affect the rule in the least. 



Now, if the handler aspires to train his dog to such a 

 degree of refinement in quartering that he can sit on a fence 

 on the windward side of a field, cast his dog in a straight 

 line to the lee side, then have the dog quarter the field back 

 to him, as is described by some authors, he is leading a very 

 forlorn hope. In about nine cases out of ten, when the 

 handler seats himself comfortably, the dog does likewise; 

 the tenth dog is generally deficient in sense or experience. 

 About once in a lifetime the average sportsman who owns 

 the average number of dogs may own one dog which will 

 have consideration enough to hunt a field while his handler 

 sits on the fence. However, it is hardly worth his while to 

 attempt training the average dog to this accomplishment, 

 for he will be disappointed. 



In teaching braces to quarter, it is necessary to teach each 

 dog singly until he is passably proficient, it being self-evi- 

 dent that if one dog is difficult to train to it, two at one 

 time would be immeasurably more so. Some writers advise 

 that an old dog be started with a young one to teach him 



