REMARKS.] 



THE DOG, AND ITS VAEIETIES; 



[remarks. 



Thug, it is illegal to slioot a dog upon your 

 O'.vn property, even although he is in the act 

 of chasing and frightening your sheep, until 

 you have tried to make him desist, or to drive 

 him from the field by fair means. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON SHOOTING DOGS, 



After the sportsman has secured his sport- 

 ing quarters, the next consideration is his 

 dogs. AVhat kind shall he take ? If he has 

 them, good and well ; if not, the sooner he 

 procures them, and gets to know them, the 

 better. Dogs are not put into condition for 

 work in a week, nor yet in a month ; and a 

 man really fond of sport, will, himself, take 

 the greatest interest in the exercising of his 

 dogs, so as to prepare them both in wind and 

 in foot for this, the hardest of all work for 

 tliem ; and if men would themselves take their 

 dogs out for their daily walks along the road, 

 they would feel the benefit of it in August, by 

 their own feet being in better order for walk- 

 ing, and by their dogs knowing them well, and 

 beating for their master, instead of ibr the 

 keeper. Colonel Hawker tells us to use " well- 

 tried and staunch dogs;" and others say, that 

 " dogs for grouse-shooting ought to be first-rate 

 in every respect — the highest bred, and best 

 disciplined;" though the colonel prefers set- 

 ters, and advises, when practicable, a mixture of 

 pointers and setters. lu Daniel's Rural Sports, 

 in Lascelles' Familiar Letters on Sporting — in 

 fact, in every book on the subject, but in none 

 more succinctly and better treated than in 

 Blaine, we find the same thing — "To have 

 good sport, you must have good dogs." What 

 can be more disappointing, or annoying, than 

 to find, on arriving at the moor, that when you 

 want to be killing game, you have to be dog- 

 breaking ? — that the dogs either won't range 

 at all, or else run up more birds than they 

 point — and that when you do get a shot, you 

 have to shout until you are hoarse to make 

 them " down charge," putting up two or three 

 birds under your feet ; and, having loaded, put 

 yourself into a fever of perspiration with 

 thrashing them for "running in," and snap- 

 ping the bird you have killed, spoiling your 

 grouse, your temper, and your shooting for the 

 rest of the day. This may seem an unusual 

 case ; but any one who shoots chiefly on sub- 

 scription moors, will bear us out, that more 

 41G 



than half the men one meets witli, are provided 

 with a team of dogs not one iota better than 

 we have described. Where, then, is a man to 

 procure good dogs? is the natural question. 

 Let him go to a really respectable breaker, or 

 keeper; have a good trial, and give a good 

 price. Some parts of the year are certainly 

 not favourable to see dogs well tried, especially 

 vfhen birds are sitting, and have very little 

 scent; and if it is necessary to see whether a 

 dog is " free from hare," it is difficult to find 

 one without going into corn cr mowing grass. 

 The dog's general style, working to hand and 

 obedience, howevei-, can be judged of, as also 

 his condition, and the hardness of his feet ; 

 and if he has been shot over for one or more 

 seasons, so much the better. But, to any one 

 who wishes to shoot in comfort, we would say, 

 avoid what is called " a promising young dog, 

 just out of the breaker's hands, and ready for 

 work," unless you can have a really good trial, 

 and see powder burnt over him. No one 

 ought to take less than two brace of dogs to 

 the moors, so as to be able to change them at 

 noon, and keeping the best for the afternoon 

 shooting. It is true good setters will go all 

 day, and some every day in the week ; and 

 though we believe some pointers are capable 

 of almost the same exertion, we have never 

 met with them ; still, it is hard upon the 

 animal, however courageous, to tax his strength 

 beyond certain limits, and is, besides, a com- 

 fort to oneself to let out a fresh brace after 

 luncheon. By the way, some men have their 

 spare dogs led along with them, which is a 

 great mistake, as, with the excitement of 

 watching their master shoot, and the pulling 

 against the man who leads them, they are 

 never resting. We knew one wlio liked his 

 dogs to begin the season, though not over fat, 

 with plenty of flesh on their ribs. He thought 

 they worked better for it, and very soon got 

 to their hard-condition trim, and doing their 

 work better than dogs that are kept thin 

 by poor diet; for if dogs nre properly fed 

 before going to the moors, no one can have 

 them in spare working condition with common 

 road exercise, unless he give them fifteen or 

 twenty miles a day after a horse, like grey- 

 hounds. He fed his dogs pretty much the 

 same all the year round, with the exception 

 of substituting "greaves" for flesh in hot 



