SPANIELS 201 



get up their keenness for hunting, it is a misfortune, and the task 

 of breaking will become all the harder. In a good breed this 

 encouragement will not be required. It is always hard to 

 create opposites simultaneously, and to make a dog both bold 

 and obedient. 



The principal requirement in the hunting spaniel is nose, 

 quickness, never going out of gun-shot, instant obedience, and 

 bustling up game in a hurry without chasing it when it is up, 

 dropping to shot, and retrieving dead and wounded game when 

 told. It is a large order, and yet dogs that can do it all often 

 make no more than 15 at auction, and sometimes less. 



It is obvious that a well-bred spaniel will start hunting as 

 soon as he is introduced to the smell of game, then his range 

 must be taught either by using a line or by voice and whistle. 

 In thick covert the former is not possible. The principal 

 difficulty is to stop the puppy as soon as he has moved his 

 game. Again, either voice or cord can be made to do the 

 business, but probably a little of both will bring about the 

 required education sooner than either by itself. The system 

 should be to prevent the chase, not to punish for that which is 

 instinctive in the pupil. Consequently, the quick obedience to 

 voice spoken of as necessary for setters and pointers, becomes 

 doubly so for spaniels, and they really ought to tumble over to 

 voice or gun as if the latter had done it. But this instinctive 

 obedience cannot be taught during entry upon game, and 

 consequently until it is perfected the puppy is not fit to enter. 



It is much more of a strain on the instinct of the spaniel to 

 stop him when he is bustling up game than it is to stop the 

 setter when game rises or runs away from his point. In one 

 case restraint follows upon restraint, in the other it follows 

 excitement let loose. 



Retrieving should be taught the same way as for a retriever 

 proper, and if it precedes the work of entering upon the finding 

 of live game, the latter will be all the easier for the breaker. 



Wild spaniels in very thick cover are of more use than a 

 highly broken team. Where the covert is so thick that a worker 

 of spaniels cannot get into the thick parts, his highly broken 



