150 The Dog Book 



Whether it is advisable to gradually develop the young puppy and at an 

 early age teach him some of the lessons pertaining to the broken dog, is a 

 much discussed question, and those who have trained dogs differ materially 

 in their opinions. We have seen young puppies taught to death, one might 

 say, in yard breaking, as that part of the training is called which precedes 

 the actual field work. Such overtrained puppies far too often lose all 

 self-reliance and are perpetually on the look out for orders by sound or 

 signal, the result of too early training and continual ordering. The natural 

 spirit of the dog should be fostered and the education consist in learning 

 the lesson of strict obedience to order when one is given, and not for the 

 dog to be perpetually depending upon or expecting an order. For that 

 reason many consider that it is better to leave the advanced training lessons 

 till such time as a regular course of instruction can be given at an age when 

 the puppy's mental powers have been well developed and continue the 

 series of lessons till his education is complete. This is feasible and for 

 several reasons, the main one being that the course of training leaves no 

 gaps during which there is likely to be a lapse and part of the work have to 

 be gone over again, in order to bring the pupil up to the requirements of 

 a further lesson. 



As we have already stated, teaching the dog to come at call or whistle, 

 to wear a collar or to lead on chain without pulling is simple dog education 

 and is applicable to every dog, so that it is not to be considered part of the 

 education of a field dog. There is only one suggestion, however, that should 

 not be overlooked and that is that the use of the whistle should be regulated 

 as are the words of command, and by that we mean one style for each com- 

 mand. Now the most frequent use of the whistle while in the field is that 

 when a dog is wanted to change his course and it is well to make one blast 

 do for that: a simple attracting attention to be followed by the motion 

 for a change of course. It is therefore obvious that to call a dog in, more 

 than one blast should be given even from the first time of calling the dog 

 in that manner. 



The first field dog training lesson begins with the order to stop and 

 this should be begun with the dog on lead and at heel. Let the trainer when 

 walking stop with the word "to-ho." We advise the use of that word, 

 simply for the reason that it has been the signal used from the very earliest 

 times, has become common and it does as well as anything else, besides it 

 is a good sonorous sound to launch at a dog at a distance. Let this be 



