FOR THE FIELD AND FIELD TRIALS. ?! 



pel the shyness as a phase of the passing moment. 

 But if the dog's fears dominate him, his thoughts are 

 concentrated on his own safety, and in that frame of 

 mind he is not a promising pupil. 



When a dog is trained too much, he is said to be 

 over-trained, but this term does not properly convey 

 the meaning of the results of over-meddling, namely, 

 the suppression of his proper educational develop- 

 ment and the slavish subordination of his will, which 

 make him a mere unthinking machine in the hands 

 of his master. By way of contrasting the differ- 

 ence between arrested mental development, let us 

 consider the independent action, the resourcefulness, 

 the vigorous industry of a hound or hounds in pur- 

 suit of a fox, of greyhounds in pursuit of a jack- 

 rabbit, of self-hunting setters and pointers when 

 freely ranging alone through field and forest in pur- 

 suit of prey. These qualities, then at their best 

 that is, as the dogs use them for themselves 

 are at the degree they should be after the dog is 

 trained to apply them in the service of the gun. But, 

 if the trainer exercises and enforces his own judg- 

 ment as to what the dog must do in every moment 

 and every act, perpetually commanding, whistling-, 



