BREAKING AT PAIRING TIME. 125 



away, to approach in such a careful manner as to lead the 

 sportsman in the right direction without disturbing the 

 game. 



Besides these four chief points which are now to be taught, 

 the seven preliminary lessons will also have to be repeated 

 day by day and hour by hour. If they have been neglected, 

 they must be taught at the same time ; but the task is 

 thereby increased tenfold, and dogs which are not obedient to 

 nearly all these words of command before they are shown 

 game, rarely become steady at any subsequent period. It is 

 a disputed point whether puppies should be broken to game 

 at all without the gun, and Colonel Hutchinson decides in 

 favour of postponing the education in this department till 

 the autumn. He says : 



" I cannot believe it is the best way to attain great excel- 

 lence, though the plan has many followers ; it does not culti- 

 vate the intelligence of his" (the keeper's) " pupils, nor enlarge 

 their ideas by making them sensible of the object for which 

 such pains are taken in hunting them. Moreover, their 

 natural ardour (a feeling that it should be his aim rather to 

 increase than weaken) is more or less damped by having often 

 to stand at game before they can be rewarded for their exer- 

 tions by having it killed to them ; it prevents rather than 

 imparts the zeal and perseverance for which Irish dogs are 

 so remarkable. Particularly ought a breaker whose pupil 

 is of a nervous temperament, or of too gentle a disposition, to 

 consider well that the want of all recompence for finding 

 paired birds must make a timid dog far more likely to become a 

 ' blinker' when he is checked for not pointing them, than when 

 he is checked for not pointing birds which his own impetuosity 

 alone deprives him of every chance of impetuously ' touseling.' 

 The very fact that the birds lie will frequently lead to mis- 

 chief; for if the instructor be not very watchful, there is a 

 fear that his youngsters may succeed in getting too close to 

 their game before he forces them to come to a stand point." 



Now, this is all very pretty in theory, but practically I 

 believe it to be utterly fallacious. In the first place, the 

 chief difficulty always is in getting the dog to begin to point; 

 for after he has once shown the disposition, the subsequent 

 progress is a matter of patience and firmness on the part of 



