POINTERS AND SETTERS. 249 



It is scarcely necessary for me to remark that no single life 

 would suffice to bring the art of breaking dogs to all the per- 

 fection of which it is capable, when the various improvements 

 of succeeding generations are handed down from one to the other ; 

 and therefore I neither pretend to be the inventor of any me- 

 thod here detailed^ nor do I claim any peculiarity as my own. 

 All the plans of teaching the young dog that will be found 

 described by me are practised by most good breakers ; so that 

 there will be nothing to be met with in my remarks but what 

 is well known to them. Nevertheless, they are not generally 

 known ; and there are many good shots who are now entirely 

 dependent upon dog-dealers for the supply of their kennels, 

 and who yet would infinitely prefer to break their own dogs, 

 if they only knew how to set about it. Others, again, cannot 

 afford the large sum which a highly accomplished brace of 

 pointers or setters are worth in the market ; and these gentle- 

 men woidd far rather obtain two or three good puppies and 

 break them with their own hands, with expenditure of little 

 more than time, than put up with the wretchedly broken ani- 

 mals which are offered for sale by the dozen at the com- 

 mencement of every shooting season. To make the utmost of 

 any dog requires great experience and tact, and therefore the 

 ordinary sportsman, however ardent he may be, can scarcely 

 expect his dogs to attain this amount of perfection ; but by 

 attending to the following instructions, which will be given in 

 plain language, he may fairly hope to turn out a brace of dogs 

 far above the averaa-e of those belonging to his neighbours. 



