POINTERS AND SETTERS in 



received no intimation that chasing game and flushing it are 

 wrong, except that hereditary instinct may prompt the puppy 

 to point and also to back. 



It is not well to insist upon instant dropping to wing, until 

 a young dog has learnt how to point steadily and to draw up 

 boldly to the game at the side of his breaker. This becomes 

 a nerve-trying task if a sudden rush of wings is also associated 

 with orders to "drop," and it is well to confirm the natural 

 attitude on point, which will generally be beautiful, before 

 running a risk of the young dog learning to confuse the point 

 with the order to drop to wing. 



The rush in, on the rise of game, is better first checked by 

 the hand upon the collar, or on the cord, if one is used. 



There is no use in calling " To-ho " to a pointing dog, or in 

 using any words of caution. A broken dog requires no caution, 

 and a partly broken or unbroken one is to be taught to rely 

 upon his nose, and not on the breaker's voice, for his knowledge 

 of when he should point. If the breaker knows best, where is 

 the use of the dog? If the latter points or draws and then 

 moves on, let him do it ; it is educational, and one mistake may 

 prevent a hundred ; but if you " to-ho " a false point you are 

 making a bad dog by it, and if you " to-ho " when there is 

 game you are teaching the dog that you are going to tell him 

 when to point, and that you certainly cannot judge of by the 

 dog's manner if he does not know himself. 



One of the principal things to teach is quartering, and this is 

 often the natural outcome of walking directly up wind with 

 your pupil. It is generally instinctive to the well-bred dog to 

 cross the wind to and fro. But this natural instinct will be 

 unhinged by any change of direction, so that a breaker who 

 started his puppy in different and changing methods, in regard 

 to the wind, would find him ranging, but not quartering, and 

 would observe the puppy at the end of a cast as likely to turn 

 down wind as up. For this reason, until a confirmed range has 

 been established by walking into the wind, with the puppy beat- 

 ing from side to side of his breaker, no other method of beating a 

 field should be attempted. Even with the precaution of always 



