FOR THE FIELD AND FIELD TRIALS. 21 1 



puppy in these lessons, but if he is treated kindly as 

 to manner, though firmly as to practice, he will not 

 remember them long, and, being in separate lessons, 

 he will not associate them with the main theme of re- 

 trieving. 



As before intimated, the length of time required 

 to teach retrieving by the natural method is from 

 puppyhood to maturity. A few families of dogs, 

 intelligent, deferential and vain by nature, take 

 kindly to retrieving. However, when taught by the 

 natural method, they rarely make a finished perform- 

 ance, and display all their peculiar selfish idiosyn- 

 crasies in their work. 



After the puppy displays some steadiness and 

 finish in retrieving the pad, or whatever other object 

 is used, the wing or tail feathers of a common barn- 

 yard chicken may be tied to it, so that he will be ac- 

 customed to grasping them with his mouth. Al- 

 though no dog hesitates to grasp them when they 

 are on a bird which he himself has captured, many 

 dogs manifest a persistent repugnance to them when 

 they are attached to an object to be retrieved. So 

 great is their dislike for them that the trainer may 

 find it necessary to place the feathery object in the 



