POINTERS AND SETTERS 103 



Trials for ability to stay are much more necessary now than 

 ever before, because the dog shows have ceased to be any 

 assistance to breeders of working dogs. When it was possible 

 to compare at shows the external forms of pointers and setters 

 that had succeeded at field trials, they were of some use, on 

 the ground that true formation is suggestive of stamina. But 

 since separate breeds of dogs have been evolved by the shows 

 for the shows, the working dogs are either not sent to them, or 

 do not win if they are sent, so that the show-winning pointer or 

 setter is taken to be bad and of a degraded sort unless the 

 contrary is proved. This is a great pity, for there is no doubt 

 that stamina is the foundation of almost every other virtue in 

 the pointer and setter. 



A dog that cannot go on long has the period of his daily 

 breaking restricted, he does not learn wisdom, he does not gain 

 enough experience to make a proper use of his scenting powers, 

 and if, at last, success in breaking is achieved, then the reward 

 for labour expended is half an hour's fast work instead of half a 

 day of it. 



This means that the shooter must have a large kennel and 

 one or two kennel men, instead of a small kennel easily looked 

 after by a gamekeeper without hindrance to his other work. 

 The question then becomes serious, and those who live in 

 London or in the neighbourhood of big towns usually have 

 not the necessary room for the healthy maintenance of a large 

 kennel of dogs. If they take moors in Scotland or Ireland, 

 the kennels there are usually only of service in the shooting 

 season, especially if the moors are not taken upon long lease. 

 Scotland is bad wintering for dogs bred in England, and 

 although it must not be forgotten that the Duke of Gordon, 

 Lord Lovat, and many other sportsmen wintered their famous 

 kennels of setters in Scotland, their dogs came to have coats 

 much thicker than are to be seen now upon setters that is, they 

 had less feather but more body covering. At least, that was the 

 opinion formed by the writer on paying a visit to the late Lord 

 Lovat's kennel in the early seventies. At that time this kennel 

 and that of Lord Cawdor were the only representatives of the 



