. How TO TRAIN A RETRIEVER (LESSON F) 493 



Place a walking stick in the ground in some fairly 

 long grass at thirty yards distance upu-ind, run a cord 

 from you round the foot of the stick and back again 

 to your hand, and hold its ends ; tie a pigeon or small 

 rabbit, or even a ball, to one end of the cord and grasp 

 the other end, caress or feed the puppy with your 

 back towards the stick, and, without his seeing you, 

 slowly pull one end of the cord so that the other 

 end to which the pigeon or rabbit is attached runs 

 about halfway to the stick.* 



Turn round and walk away a few yards, ' down 

 charge ' your puppy, and then jerk your arm towards 

 the spot the lure was on before you trailed it away, 

 and cry ' Seek ! ' Off he goes ! Now is an anxious 

 moment : will he place his nose to the ground on 

 finding only the scent of the object that was trailed 

 away ? If the puppy has been properly trained in 



-7///Z//, as taught in the last lesson, he is sure to do 

 so, and you will have the great delight of seeing your 

 pupil work out his first scent till he finds the bird, rabbit, 

 or ball at the end of it ; do not move, but call the puppy 

 up to you, and as you gently take the pigeon from him 

 reward him with a ' tit-bit ' whilst you sing his praises 

 to him as if he were the cleverest dog that ever existed. 



Repeat the lesson and carefully increase the dis- 



* I hear you say, Why not direct an assistant to trail the pigeon, 

 and so dispense with the stick and string ? Simply because all instruc- 

 tion should be given to a puppy by his trainer only ; if other persons 

 are present or assist you, his attention is sure to be distracted from 

 hi* work. 



