TRAINING A RETRIEVER 



MODERN modes of shooting and 

 game preserving give little time to sportsmen 

 and gamekeepers to perfect their retrievers in the field. 

 It is rare now to find a keeper with any taste for a dog 

 of any sort, hence a good one is the exception and not the 

 rule. But still a good retriever is as necessary and as 

 valuable as ever, if not more so ; and I venture to suggest 

 how, by early tuition, to make a good one in spite of the 

 before-named handicaps. 



My father, who was very clever with dogs, and always 

 broke his own pointers and retrievers, used to say "you 

 can break any dog in the kennel or in your own room, 

 and when you take it into the field it will soon learn the 

 reil" ; and I expect he was pretty right, for he never 

 kept a bad one. 



It is difficult to begin the tuition of a retriever puppy 

 too young, but first, I say, make sure you have a natural 

 carrier (and at two months old, or less, you can make 

 pretty sure of that), otherwise your time may be wasted 

 and bitter disappointment ensue. 



First make your puppy know its name, and by degrees 

 "sit down" to order, your hand being held up at the same 

 time. When it will allow you to walk away a few yards 

 without its moving, call it up to you with a whistle, al- 

 ways rewarding it with a bit of biscuit ; in time it will 

 conned the whistle with reward, and through life never 



73 



