POINTERS AND SETTERS. 259 



circuit and get it for himself. Nevertlieless, a good dog, who 

 has a master as good as himself, should always wait for orders, 

 and there is always some excuse for very clever ones becoming 

 headstrong when they are constantly misdirected. Let me again 

 repeat what I have observed on the importance of teaching, at 

 first, the correct mode of quartering the ground, and of per- 

 severing (without regard to standing or pointing) in the lessons 

 on this subject alone, until the puppy is tolerably perfect in 

 them. At the same time it is true that some little attention 

 may be paid to the " point ; '^ but this is of far less conse- 

 quence at the early stage which we are now considering. In- 

 deed, in most well-bred dogs, it comes naturally ; but none 

 beat to the hand without an education in that particular depart- 

 ment. 



But at this stage it will be frequently needfid to correct 

 various faults which are apt to show themselves in young dogs, 

 such as (1) "hunting too low," leading to "pottering or dwell- 

 ing on the foot-scent ; " (2) hunting too wide from the breaker ; 

 and (3) " blinking," or leaving the game as soon as found, which 

 last is a fault depending on undue previous severity. With 

 regard to the first of them, there is, unfortunately, no certain 

 remedy for it ; and the puppy which shows it to any great ex- 

 tent after a week or ten days' breaking will seldom be good 

 for much, in spite of all the skill and trouble which an expe- 

 rienced breaker can apply. The method of cure most commonly 

 adopted is that called hunting with a "puzzle-peg" on, which 



is shown applied in the annexed cut. It consists of a piece of 



s2 



