264 BRITISH DOGS 



suddenly to stamp your foot, to light a Vesuvian with a good crack, 

 to strike an iron-shod stick against a stone floor, or any dodge of 

 this sort which may give you an idea as to whether there is an inclina- 

 tion to resent noises, and so to develop into gun-shyness. 



As to the breaking, or, rather, as the writer prefers to call it, the 

 education of the puppy, this should be taken in hand as soon as 

 your pupil is able to walk. Habits of prompt obedience can then 

 be cultivated easily. It should be a hard-and-fast rule that the 

 puppy should never be allowed to roam about by itself, or to go out 

 with anybody except its master ; above all, it should never be 

 frightened in any way, it should never be struck with the hand even-, 

 much less with a whip, for many months, and it should never be 

 driven into its kennel. If its owner, too, has time and patience, it 

 may be taught by degrees to point bits of biscuit hidden in long 

 grass, and all that sort of thing. 



Any education which has a tendency to develop brain power 

 and to cultivate intellect as well as to promote obedience and a 

 fellow-feeling with its master will prove most valuable, as long as 

 trick-teaching is not overdone, and above all things as long as no 

 severity of any sort is practised. A puppy thus brought up will more 

 than recompense all trouble, when the age for training to game is 

 reached. 



At what age this should commence it is impossible to say. The 

 general rule would be to begin as soon as the puppy starts to 

 range freely, but with some young dogs it is necessary to get scent 

 into their noses before they will begin to range at all ; so that 

 the age must be left to the intelligence of " the tutor." 



Now, this tutor must not be surprised or disappointed if his pupil 

 runs utterly wild and is apparently unmanageable when first intro- 

 duced to birds. Very often the puppy which has been highly 

 educated will be wilder to begin with than a neglected one ; but there 

 will always be this difference, the educated one will know right from 

 wrong at the slightest hint from its master, and its disobedience will 

 soon cease. 



Some years since the writer had two beautiful Llewellin puppies 

 which he had educated most elaborately from their earliest baby- 

 hood. When they were only about three months old they would 

 drop well to hand, stay where they were told, follow at heel, come 

 well to whistle, and obey all orders promptly; at a very early age, 

 too, they were very high rangers. One day they came for the first 

 time across a brace of birds. They chased them, one giving tongue, 

 for a good mile, flying several fences, swimming a small river, and 

 crossing a railway, and this in spite of all whistles and objurgations. 

 On their return they were talked to a great deal, and had a few 

 very mild slaps with the hand. The next day one of them stood 

 birds well and dropped to wing, and neither was much trouble 



