RETRIEVING. 43 



place several articles close together. Put your hat and gloves 

 with his baH and other light articles, then order him to bring 

 the hat, should he pick it up at the fiist trial, as he is very- 

 likely to do, you must praise and pet him, and as you talk 

 to him you should speak the word "hat "in order to im- 

 press upon his memory the meaning of the word. Th's 

 should be done in an intelligent manner, perhaps by saying 

 he " is a good dog to bring the hat," just as you would talk 

 to a boy. Should he pick up his ball, or any other article, 

 at once tell him to i'drop," and repeat the order for the hat 

 and do not allow him to bring you anything els?. After he 

 brings the hat readily every time, you can change to some- 

 thing else, your gloves for instance; but until he has learned 

 the meaning of the words and brings the articles readily, do 

 not place the hat near them, nor where he can see it, as it 

 may confuse him. When he has become accustomed to the 

 gloves you can place the hat with them and he will soon un- 

 derstand which to bring. This course should be pursued 

 with each article, and in a short time he will understand the 

 meaning of the words ; and when you send him lor any ar- 

 ticle that you have thus taught him the name of, he will 

 seldom make a mistake. While teaching your pupil to re- 

 trive, you should never allow yourself to become careless- 

 nor let him do this work in a slovenly manner. Always in- 

 sist upon a perfect performance of his task, f^r if he is once 

 allowed to depart from the accustomed manner that you have 

 taught bim he is sure to get the impression that this is right 

 and pleasing to you, and you will have a harder task to set 

 him right than you would to have kept him straight 

 in the first place ; and worse than this, he will be 

 be very liable to become confused and fail to understand 

 just what you want; therefore, firmly insist upon implicit 

 obedience to your ordesr, and never allow yourself to deviate 

 one iota from the course that you have marked out. 



We have ever found that all intelligent dogs are very prone 

 to look to their masters f _r guidance and instinctively to 

 take their cue from them as to their behavior. You should 

 take every advantage of this trait, and by cool and collected 



