126 ANIMALS USED BY THE SHOOTER. 



the breaker. Then granting this, how can the dog be bene- 

 fited up to this time by the killing of game to his point, 

 when he has not yet arrived at that stage ? No one would 

 attempt to work dogs unnecessarily at pairing time, but I do 

 contend that a great deal may be done then far better than 

 can be effected in September, and that if the breaking is put 

 off altogether till that month, nearly the whole season will be 

 wasted in " making" the dog. On the other hand, I have 

 had dogs which, in the previous spring, had been made as per- 

 fect as possible without the gun, and which only required one 

 day, or at the utmost two, in September, to complete them. 

 I do not mean to say that subsequent experience did not im- 

 prove them, but I assert that they were on the third of the 

 month very much more steady and trustworthy than any dog 

 I ever saw at the end of September, whose education had been 

 deferred till the first of that month. There is another reason 

 why spring teaching is to be preferred to autumn : the keeper 

 or master has then no other object, and his temper is not liable 

 to be ruffled by want of success in finding game or in killing 

 it. He is not tempted to sacrifice his dogs to his " bag," or 

 to blame them for faults for which he or his friends are really 

 responsible. Again, there are few days in September when 

 the scent is good; either the ground is dry and the air hot, or 

 rain has recently fallen, and the steam produced by it inter- 

 feres with the scent. Such a state of things as is likely to 

 exist in this month demands the experience and caution of 

 the old dog, rather than that of the untried puppy ; and even 

 if the young dog has been well drilled in the spring, and has 

 come out with flying colours then, he will often have enough 

 to do to make out his game. There are other reasons against 

 following the colonel's advice, not the least of which is that 

 the dog is rendered useless for the whole of one season ; for no 

 one can do much during that period with an animal which has 

 never seen game till its commencement. I am an advocate 

 for every sportsman breaking his own dogs, but I should cer- 

 tainly not recommend his doing so to the loss of his sport, and 

 yet this must be the result if the practice which I am now 

 disputing is adopted. For these several reasons, therefore, I 

 protest against the postponement till the autumn of what may 

 well be done in the spring. It is quite true that a dog steady 



