ii6 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



of dogs as sires and dams that are easy to break, and this again 

 to the discounting of courage. Some worthy usurper, who 

 became a rightful monarch, is said to have watched a spider 

 attempt for nine times to fasten his web upon a coveted spot 

 and succeed in the end. To hunt a brace of dogs properly, it is 

 necessary to have material as persevering as the only spider in 

 history. What is required is that your dogs should find all the 

 game. In order that this should be done, they must beat all the 

 ground, and there is always one corner in a field that nature 

 induces the dogs to leave behind. The corner to right or left 

 of the spot at which the dogs are started is sure to be slightly 

 down wind of the starting-place. The natural tendency is to in- 

 vestigate up wind, and it may be necessary for a breaker to start 

 his dogs ten or twenty times, and to call them back as often, 

 before he can make them understand that they are to " sink 

 the wind," are to drop back, as it were, behind it, and do the 

 usually neglected corner before pressing forward and investigat- 

 ing the scent of game that is probably all the time coming from 

 upwind of them. But it is only the very highest-couraged dogs 

 that can be expected to give cheerful obedience during the con- 

 stant interference that the teaching of this useful lesson involves. 

 The point the author wishes to make is, that it is necessary to 

 breed for courage and break for docility, and that this is 

 exactly contrary to the breeding for docility that has been done. 

 This process, which has been intended to improve breaking, has 

 eliminated the best brace work and the best quartering. 



It is not intended to convey the idea that very close 

 quartering is a good feature. The dog should fully occupy his 

 time, and range to the capacity of his nose. To say a dog is 

 going too wide may easily be a great mistake. It is often said 

 that a pointer or setter misses ground, but although some 

 people think that game cannot be missed if ground is beaten in 

 geometric figures, with parallel lines near together, it is often 

 to be observed that those which most obviously leave no ground 

 behind them are just those that leave birds behind them. If 

 we could only smell as dogs do for ten minutes, we should 

 understand them much better. It seems wonderful that these 



