EETEIETEB.] 



THE DOG, AND ITS VARIETIES; 



[eetrietee. 



ordinary tact, were the delight of all who saw 

 his performances. Training is everything. It 

 operates on the canine as it does on the human 

 species. Ifc gives them knowledge, under- 

 standing, and intelligence. In these expres- 

 sions we hope to be considered as not exalt- 

 ing the dog to an equality with the man. 

 We employ them because we know of none 

 better to convey our meaning. To a certain 

 extent, the dog is possessed of all the qualities 

 they express. Who will gainsay that he has 

 not knowledge, understanding, and intelli- 

 gence ? 



"To see," says Mr. Apperley, speaking of 

 the feeding of a kennel of hounds — " to see 

 sixty couple of hounds, all as hungry as tigers, 

 standing aloof in the yard (as is the practice 

 in some kennels), and without even hearing, 

 much less feeling the whip, not daring to move 

 until the order is given them to do so ! And 

 what is the order given ? AVhy, at the words, 

 ' Come over, bitclies,' or, * Come over, dogs,' 

 every hound of each individual sex comes for- 

 ward, as the S^x it belongs to may be called 

 for, leaving those of the other sex in their 

 places. Then the act of drawing them to the 

 feeding-troughs is an exceedingly interesting 

 sight. Often, with the door wide open, and 

 the savoury meat in their view, the huntsman 

 has no use for his whip, having nothing to do 

 but to call each hound by his name, vrhich, of 

 course, he readily answers to. The expression 

 of countenance, too, at this time, is well worthy 

 of notice; and that of earnest solicitation, of 

 entreaty, we might almost say of importunity, 

 cannot be more forcibly displayed than in the 

 face of a hungry hound awaiting his turn to 

 be drawn. He appears absolutely to watch 

 the lips of the huntsman, anticipating his own 

 name." Here the qualities to which we have 

 alluded are exemplified in a marked degree. 



The retriever is sometimes a cross between 

 a Newfoundland and a pointer ; and, indeed, 

 Newfoundland dogs, themselves, act as re- 

 trievers. The general tractability and docility 

 of these dogs render them easily to be taught 

 to do almost anything but speak. Some have 

 shot woodcocks to them. In reference to 

 retrievers being trained by children, opinions 

 differ. " Six years since a gentleman bought 

 a retriever, that liad been trained by children 

 to fetch or bring stones from the bottom 

 444 



of a river, until his teeth had been broken 

 with the practice, and he proved altogether 

 worthless as a sporting dog. It is now up- 

 wards of six times six years since I com- 

 mitted the very same blunder, and my dog 

 seems to have been even worse than his, for I 

 never could get hinv to take the slightest 

 notice either of gun or game ; and so lively a 

 recollection have I entertained of the circum- 

 stance ever since, that I never dreamed after- 

 wards of buying a dog until I had tried him at 

 the actual work for which I wanted him. His 

 dog was trained by children ; so was mine ; 

 and with my dog, at least, the children had 

 done their part to admiration. The dog knew 

 his lesson perfectly : the spike-collar could not 

 have done it better, if it had been applied at 

 twelve months old, to make him dive for 

 stones, and fetch them up from the bottom of 

 a river. The mistake, in both cases, was in 

 keeping the dogs at child's play too long and 

 too exclusively to admit of their being turned 

 into sporting dogs afterwards; or, rather, I 

 should not have bought a dog for a retriever 

 that had done nothing but fetch stones for 

 children until his teetli were broken. 



" I have now in my house a little animal, a 

 cross between a Blenheim spaniel and a foreign 

 nondescript. He belongs to my children, and 

 they have taught him tricks enough to qualify 

 him for an exhibition ; his teeth are all gone 

 with gnawing sticks and fetching stones, and 

 he is as fond of these things now as he waa 

 six years ago as a puppy ; but, notwithstand- 

 ing all this, a better little dog never hunted a 

 rabbit out of a furze-brake, or a water-hen 

 out of a bed of rushes ; and, whether he is 

 standing in a corner, or performing any 

 other of his numerous antics, the click of my 

 gun-lock will send him screaming to the house- 

 door." 



Training is everything, we repeat ; although a 

 spaniel or retriever should range close on flat 

 ground, he ought always to enter and remain 

 in cover, however far from it a shooter may 

 think proper to station himself. Nothing can 

 be more annoying than an animal scampering 

 on dry leaves in and out of a wood, effectually 

 preventing our hearing a cock rise, and all kinds 

 of game from approaching us. Neither should 

 he be allowed to quit a wood to hunt the banks 

 of a brook for water-hens. A pointer that has 



