BREAKING AND HANDLING. 245 



the dog must thereafter be treated with unvarying kindness 

 without reference to the good or ill he may do. Perhaps 

 he may follow resolutely at heel day after day, in which 

 event he must have his own way until time and kindness 

 assuage his fears. It may be necessary at last to give him 

 whole birds to eat, or permit him to tear the head off while 

 the bird is in the hand. This, as a matter of course, has a 

 tendency to spoil his retrieving, but at times there is only 

 the choice between a spoiled retriever and a spoiled dog. 

 Errors in training cannot always be corrected, hence it is 

 better to avoid them. 



Bolting is the act of running away completely; the dog 

 has quit hunting, and has no intention of returning, at least 

 within a reasonable time; and the handler has lost all con- 

 trol of him. It is the worst form of running away. It is 

 generally caused by gunshyness, fear of punishment, or 

 from a desire to be disobedient. This fault should not be 

 confounded with self-hunting, since in the latter fault, the 

 dog has no intention to bolt he simply hunts beyond con- 

 trol and returns at times to learn the whereabouts of his 

 handler. When a dog runs away, he generally returns home; 

 sometimes he hides at a safe distance from his handler and 

 may return after awhile; sometimes he goes miles and miles, 

 traveling day after day. In training there is a great dif- 

 ference in the dispositions of dogs in this respect. There 

 are individuals which will run away on the slightest provo- 

 cation; others will not run unless unreasonably punished, 

 and then they may run entirely out of the neighborhood; 

 others again will run to a safe distance and begin self-hunt- 

 ing, and may refuse to pay the slightest attention to him 

 further than to keep in mind his general course; thus there 

 are several distinct degrees of running away. There is no 

 part of training that requires greater tact than catching a 

 runaway dog, providing he does not bolt, this act being un- 



