124 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



better too. This is only saying that the lighter and stronger he 

 is for his size the better. 



If it is impossible to see dogs out before auction days arrive, 

 the safest way is to pick out some owner who sells with a good 

 description, and who is good for powder and shot in the event 

 of a mistake being made. Then the buyer has what amounts 

 to a guarantee, and one that has often been acted upon. But 

 unless the purchase is of well seasoned dogs, that have been the 

 chief helps to some well-known sportsmen, it is always safest to 

 go exclusively for field trial blood. 



The chances are that young dogs of this blood will be far 

 better than their owners know, and will come on in a surprising 

 manner after a little shooting over, whereas coarse-bred dogs, 

 that have been shot over a season, will be going back, and in 

 most cases will have probably learnt some bad habits. 



Nobody can decide for another how many dogs will do. 

 The men differ even more than the dogs. Alternate instead 

 of consecutive days on the moors will mean half the dogs 

 necessary for every day upon the "hull." In the same way the 

 number may be decreased again by half if the shooting does 

 not start until noon, and a long hour is taken for lunch, and the 

 shooter is back at the lodge by 6 p.m. 



Other men will begin shooting at 9 a.m., and will stop work 

 at 6.30 or 7 p.m., which more than doubles the hours. Then 

 the dogs will differ. The average perhaps will not now do 

 more than two hours' fast work during the day. Nothing is 

 much more distressing in sport than a tired man trusting to a 

 weary dog. That kind of thing is not what one pays big 

 grouse rents for, and nothing less than fast work is likely to 

 satisfy in these days. 



No shooter of economic mind in regard to canine assistance 

 does well to permit couples to be used on shooting days. They 

 take half a day's work out of some dogs, and a good deal out 

 of all. Pointers and setters ought to be taught to walk at heel 

 without couples, and are all the better for being sent in a cart 

 to the fixture. Every ounce of energy should be conserved, as 

 with a Derby horse. If dogs are really broken, they cannot be 



