1 86 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



That these retriever trials are doing good, in starting 

 breeders who are trying to correct the working faults of the 

 various breeds, is obvious, and with the public spirit exhibited 

 by the late Mr. Assheton-Smith future sportsmen will assuredly 

 associate the names of Mr. B. J. Warwick, Mr. C. C. Eley, and 

 Mr. William Arkwright, not only as founders of the Retriever 

 Society, but also as finders of the game on which the dogs 

 have been tried. 



Everybody who is acquainted with the average dogs seen at 

 shooting parties, and has the advantage of ever having seen a 

 really good one, will know how very necessary was some such 

 move as these field trials. It often has been said that all the 

 retrievers could do was to pick up game the men could see. It 

 has become fashionable to demand a no-slip retriever that is, 

 one that will not run in to retrieve until ordered to do so. 

 Perhaps it has been the readiness with which such dogs have 

 sold that has caused breakers to prefer the slugs, as being the 

 most easily controlled, and the least likely to be returned by 

 purchasers as wild. Whatever has done it, the real game-loving 

 instinct is much weakened since the time when a retriever was a 

 working dog or nothing ; but it appears to survive in a modified 

 degree, which may assuredly be strengthened by selection. 



It has been previously stated that the waiting until drives are 

 over makes the retrievers work harder than of old, but this does not 

 apply to the hardest of all work that is, covert shooting ; for this 

 has been largely " driving " ever since retrievers were introduced, 

 if it can be said that they ever were introduced. This point is 

 rather doubtful, because the curly retriever is nothing more 

 than an altered edition of the old English water-dog, which 

 variety used to do wildfowler's duty, with a white leg or two, a 

 white chest and a short tail, which had probably been r'-t like 

 those of other spaniels. The first retriever the author shot over 

 was entirely of this description, stern and all, except that she 

 was all black, or so nearly whole-coloured that no white upon 

 her can be remembered. This was about 1860, and a son of 

 this " missing link " was particularly smart, and had so good a 

 mouth, that on one occasion, when he annexed a hen sitting 



