506 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS 



LETTEE XXXIII 



CONCLUDING REMARKS 

 ON WORKING YOUNG RETRIEVERS 



ONE of the first principles of finding dead or 

 wounded game is to give a young dog the full advan- 

 tage of its scent to himself. If you walk upwind of 

 the bird the dog is seeking, or over the spot where 

 it dropped, you will intermix your scent with the 

 scent of the game, and assuredly perplex his nose. I 

 often hear retrievers called stupid because they fail to 

 at once find a dead or wounded bird when half a 

 dozen people are treading all round and over the spot 

 where it fell, and of course destroying all vestiges of 

 scent. A retriever under the above conditions has not 

 a chance, and the men who are trampling about with 

 a view to assisting him do not help him in the least, 

 but very much the contrary. 



If you mark a dead bird fall in cover, take your 

 dog to within a few yards of the spot where it fell, 

 and send him for it ; but if you can pick up the bird 

 yourself, keep your dog at heel -you should in fact 

 never allow him to retrieve what you are easily able 



