. Ho\v TO TRAIN A RETRIEVER {LESSOX VI} 497 



the crack of the whip-lash with the appearance of the 

 ground game, and realise he is forbidden to chase it. 

 If you can find a hare in her form, or a rabbit 

 squatting, it is an excellent lesson for the dog if 

 you walk slowly up saying ' Heel ! heel ! ' with the 

 cord ready as a check, and the whip as a sugges- 

 tion of discipline, on the game rising from its seat. 



Some trainers allow live rabbits to run at liberty 

 near a young dog in order to accustom him to their 

 presence, but though a retriever puppy may not 

 notice a rabbit feeding or hopping about near his 

 kennel, the same dog will eagerly chase ground game 

 that bolts from him in the fields, therefore the open 

 country is the place to break a dog off chasing, which 

 is practically the same thing as teaching him to keep 

 at heel. 



In a district in which ground game is scarce you 

 will have to break your young dog off chasing, by 

 obtaining live rabbits and turning them loose before 

 him at home. The wrong method of doing this is to 

 throw a rabbit down in front of the dog ; the right 

 way is to place the rabbit under a basket, and set it 

 at liberty with a few yards of string. Throwing a 

 rabbit from the hand is an encouragement to a dog 

 to chase, but giving a rabbit its liberty by turning 

 over a basket more closely resembles the natural dash 

 of ground game from a bush or tuft of grass in a 

 field or wood. Should you be out shooting and your 

 young retriever bolts after ground game that rises 



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