1 88 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



a drawing pointer, and be thus led into error ; and if so, this is a 

 serious objection to black and black-and-tan index dogs. 



The worst cross the author ever made was with Zelstone. 

 Although not a large dog, he was said to be a pure bred New- 

 foundland. He was a flat-coated retriever Champion, and may 

 have been himself a good worker ; but he ruined the working 

 qualities of the descendants of Jenny above mentioned, and 

 brought the author's strain of them to an end. Consequently, it 

 is suggested that the Newfoundland is the type to breed out of the 

 flat coats. 



BREAKING THE RETRIEVER 



It is said that the way to have a perfect dog is to let it live 

 with you, but it seems to be an excellent way to teach the dog 

 to obey only when he likes, for if his master insists on obedience 

 other people who will take an interest in a nice dog, will pet, 

 spoil, order, and coax by turns. The collie is put forward as 

 the most wonderful exhibition of dog breaking, but the author 

 has rarely seen a collie take the order to come to heel, or to go 

 home, when a stranger approaches the shepherd's house. The 

 good sheep-dog has a duty to perform that he likes, and he does 

 it well, but ask him to do anything besides, and he objects, and 

 gets his way. The spaniel's business is the most taxing of all, 

 and requires the best breaking, except when the retriever is 

 broken to do spaniel's duty as well as his own, as he can. That 

 is to say, he can find live rabbits in their seats and turn them 

 out to the gun, and stand still as they go. This is far more of a 

 tax on any dog than steadiness in pointing, when the breaker 

 turns out the pointed game. The turning out often amounts to 

 an attempt to catch a rabbit in its seat ; and the instantaneous 

 stop when the creature moves is, as nearly as may be, the exer- 

 cise of the savage impulse with the civilised control in mid career. 

 Perfect hand breaking of the retriever includes fetching and 

 finding inanimate objects, dropping to order, remaining down 

 for any length of time, coming to order, hunting in any direction 

 indicated by the breaker, not only to right and left as desired, 

 but far or near as bidden. All these teachings will come naturally 



