ON BREAKING POINTERS AND SETTERS. 119 



to break him, little or no severity will ever be required, the 

 puppy learning from the first by experience that he must do 

 what his master tells him, and never acquiring the habit of 

 disobedience, which alone requires the whip. Great caution 

 is necessary in those cases where a dog is committed to the 

 charge of the breaker full of faults, and totally unaccustomed 

 to control. Such an animal, if of a breed endued with high 

 courage, may possibly become a first-rate dog ; but without 

 this quality the constant necessity for punishment will be 

 almost sure to break his spirit, especially if the person who 

 undertakes his education does not possess a good temper 

 himself. The breaker of a pointer ought in all cases to be 

 possessed of this quality ; but it is not nearly so necessary 

 when he has reared the puppy, and has thus been able to 

 obtain his affections before commencing the actual breaking 

 to the gun. Few gentlemen like to go through the task 

 themselves, and there are not many who have the time for 

 it ; but if they can and will take the trouble to break their 

 own dogs, they will be rewarded by having them of double 

 value. There are many who do not care to work them in 

 person, and depute the task to the keepers when they are on 

 the moors or in the stubbles, and of course in such cases the 

 latter are the proper persons to break as well as work the 

 dogs. But if the shooter takes a pleasure in seeing the 

 instinct of the animal displayed, and in directly superin- 

 tending its operations, he must at all events make his dogs 

 own him as their master before the season commences. A 

 few days' exercising will do much, but nothing short of 

 taking them into the field, and making them beat their 

 ground, will insure the proper execution of their duties 

 when the 12th of August or the 1st of September arrives. 

 In old dogs it is often a long time before they will obey a 

 new master, and many a first-rate animal is rejected on that 

 account. One of the best and most thoroughly broken 

 pointers I ever knew, after his second season, was sold, and 

 although his purchaser took him out for several days to 

 exercise, and fed him regularly, it was a fortnight before he 

 would work. Indeed, the dog was so utterly regardless of 

 him that he thought deafness only could account for it ; but 

 gradually he took to the work, and when he found that game 



