FOR THE FIELD AND FIELD TRIALS. 2OQ 



comes less frivolous. Month by month he is less 

 playful, because it is the natural evolutionary de- 

 velopment from youth to maturity: 



Many repetitions of the retrieving act become 

 habitual, and what he at first did by way of amuse- 

 ment he may at last do by way of deference to the 

 trainer, to a habit of life, to a desire to win appro- 

 bation, and to a material self-interest in the way of 

 food rewards, or to all combined. 



After the puppy has reached a stage of advance- 

 ment in which he will fetch the object with some de- 

 gree of regularity and certainty, the trainer should 

 direct his efforts toward schooling the puppy to carry 

 the object without mouthing it. If he acquires a 

 hard mouth, shown by closing tightly on the object 

 or chewing it, there is no certainty that the fault can 

 ever be cured. In actual retrieving, a hard-mouthed 

 retriever is worse than none at all. He mutilates 

 and destroys more birds than his services are worth. 



To enforce steadiness it is better to make the les- 

 sons pertaining to it quite distinct from the other re- 

 trieving lessons. The trainer ties a rope three or 

 four feet long to the puppy's collar so that he 

 can control him easily, and, placing the object 



