BREAKING AND HANDLING. 315 



always catches a red fox in from two and one-half to four 

 hours, but to do this they must make no mistakes and have 

 favorable weather. One bad run-over, or loss, almost always 

 gives the fox enough time to get far enough away to bring 

 the pack to the trail, and if he is a good runner he will 

 never allow them to get a close run on him again until he is 

 so fatigued that he cannot possioly keep in front of them. 

 To run a good old red fox to death that has got the advan- 

 tage of a young pack in any way, you need dogs that will 

 stick, all alone if necessary, from twelve to twenty hours ; 

 and it very often is necessary. To make a success of hunt- 

 ing red foxes, there should never be under eight good dogs 

 that run and stay close together, and I think it much better 

 to have twenty or more good ones. One poor dog in a 

 chase does much more harm than good. 



We are, in this section, as careful of the lives of our red 

 foxes as we are of saving our pocketbook. I hope the 

 Eastern hunters will adopt the plan of having more and 

 better dogs, and quit shooting foxes. 



We will now consider the subject of training. A fox- 

 hound puppy should not be allowed to run any until he is 

 about eight months old, and if they are not well grown, 

 healthy puppies at that age, they should be kept up and 

 well fed until healthy and strong. When they are first 

 taken out and started on a chase, they should accompany 

 old, steady, broken hounds which you expect to train them 

 with regularly, and they should first be run on rabbits about 

 every other day. One hour at a time is sufficient, gradually 

 working them longer if they are enduring the work well, 

 until you get them so they can stand six or eight hours' 

 good hard running after rabbits, remembering that they are 

 always to be in company with the broken foxhounds that 

 they are to be broken with. 



While they are taking their first experiences with rabbits, 



