TRAINIIS^. 309 



sidering which, no sounder advice than this can be given 

 beginners : Open the way to this natural disposition to 

 please. Be ever kind and patient with your charges. 

 Never give an order either in or out of the house without 

 making them obey — provided always you are sure that 

 they understand what you want. Emphasize your orders 

 by pointing or other motions which they can interpret. 

 Speak encouragingly but firmly — never much above a 

 conversational tone if it will reach them — and as briefly 

 as possible, else you will confuse them. Let your man- 

 ner slightly increase in earnestness as they are about to 

 obey and while doing so. And when each required act 

 has been performed show your approval by a few pats on 

 the head or some toothsome morsel. Above all avoid 

 nagging, expect nothing unreasonable, and let your lessons 

 and orders be as few and far between as possible at 

 first, otherwise your puppies may regard you in the light 

 of an infliction. 



There are times when puppies, no matter how obedient 

 usually, are likely to prove intractable, and at such the 

 easiest way out of the difficulty is the best. For in- 

 stance, if a puppy, brimful of vitality and play, is on 

 a romp with an acquaintance of his kind he is scarcely 

 likely to respond to a call uttered several hundred yards 

 away ; consequently his master, if intelligent, would natu- 

 rally withhold it until he had gone near enough to be 

 able to enforce obedience. Here, again, many beginners 

 stumble badly by severely whipping their puppies when 

 they fail to respond ; in consequence of which treatment 

 for a long time afterwards they very generally run from 

 them on like occasions ; whereas the only sensible 

 method to be employed under these conditions is to 

 catch the culprit by the collar and gently lead or draw 

 him in the direction from which the call was sent, 



