31 6 MODERN TRAINING. 



they should be taught to come to the blast of the horn or a 

 call, and should be allowed to follow you on horseback 

 around the country, occasionally, to teach them how to fol- 

 low and not get lost. When they are about one year old 

 and are well advanced in chasing rabbits, they should be 

 taken out with the broken dogs next on grey foxes, or wild 

 cats, if any are available. They never should be allowed to 

 run a red fox until they are about eighteen months old, or 

 are fully developed and strong enough to run from eight to 

 twelve hours in a fast, closely-contested chase with fast 

 hounds, and never should be taken out again, after a chase, 

 until they are well rested. When started on grey fox or 

 cat, as mentioned before, they should be accompanied by 

 thoroughly broken, good, steady, working old dogs; not 

 very fast dogs, but ones that will stick close to the trail and 

 never quit following or trailing for twelve or fifteen hours, 

 unless they capture their quarry or are stopped. The rea- 

 son that I prefer dogs which are not so fast, to train pup- 

 pies with, is because I want broken dogs which they can 

 keep up with, and therefore can do some of the work them- 

 selves, if the old dogs are too fast, the puppies will soon 

 run down from their great efforts to keep up, or will be 

 thrown out and learn to quit. They rarely ever forget 

 their first experience after fox, and if they learn bad habits 

 at first, they frequently retain them through life. When 

 first taken out with broken dogs as already explained, they 

 should be allowed to have their own way to a great extent. 

 An assistant is necessary in training puppies. He can ride 

 on with the broken dogs, occasionally blowing the horn for 

 the puppies while you remain with them and cheer them off 

 of anything they may be after. After the old dogs have 

 struck a trail, the hunter should follow and encourage them 

 a little, but do very little following; the other remains back 

 and cheers the puppies in with the old dogs. They will 



