366 WILD FOWL SUOOT1NG. 



until you are ready to receive it. A perfect retriever 

 is a delight to the hunter, and an ill-trained one a curse. 

 After the dog has learned to bring the glove to your 

 satisfaction, tie some stiff feathers around it. It then 

 has the appearance of a bird, and smooths the way to 

 his retrieving ducks. As young dogs are of a wander- 

 ing disposition and like to stray from home, the nircst 

 way to break them of the habit is to contract with some 

 small boys that when they catch him from home, they 

 will coax him to them and thrash him soundly, at the 

 final whack telling him in fierce language to " Go- 

 home !" A few whippings of this kind inclines the 

 ] nippy to think that he will get punished everywhere 

 but home, and teaches him to avoid small boys. When 

 the dog has arrived at the age of ten or twelve months 

 he is like a boy in his teens, he thinks he knows it 

 all, and you will find that you must have a day of set- 

 tlement with him ; for some time, with sullen mien, he 

 will attempt to disobey you, and instead of complying 

 with your orders, will show his teeth as an indication 

 of the manner in which he is prepared to care for him- 

 self. Watch out for him, and don't give him the 

 slightest advantage, but seize him by the collar and 

 whip him untilhe is thoroughly convinced that you are 

 the master, not he. I never had a dog that I didn't go 

 through the same siege with, and the best trained re- 

 triever I ever saw, my Don, I had the hardest fight 

 with. He turned on me, a perfect fiend. We had it 

 rough and tumble, and when we were through he was 

 subdued, and until the day of his death he never re- 

 ceived another blow from me, it wasn't necessary. 

 1 1 is intelligence was human; my orders to him were 

 not commands, simply frank expressions of my wishes. 



