552 DOG-BREAKING. 



a superabundance of game, if he really hunt with an 

 inquiring nose ; but to his master what an all-important 

 " if" is this ! It marks the difference between the saga- 

 cious, wary, patient, yet diligent animal, whose every 

 sense and every faculty is absorbed in his endeavor to 

 make out birds, not for himself but the gun, and the 

 wild harum-scarum who blunders up three-fourths of the 

 birds he finds. No I not finds, but frightens, for he is 

 not aware of their presence until they are on the wing, 

 and seldom points unless he gets some heedless bird 

 right under his nose, when an ignoramus, in admiration 

 of the beauty of the dog's sudden attitude, will often 

 forget the mischief which he has done. 



145. Though you cannot improve a dog's nose, you 

 can do what is nearly tantamount to it you can increase 

 his caution. By watching for the slightest token of his 

 feathering, and then calling out " Toho," or making the 

 signal, you will gradually teach him to look out for the 

 faintest indication of a scent, and point the instant he 

 winds it, instead of heedlessly hunting on until he meets 

 a more exciting effluvia. See 174 to 176, and 228. 



146. If from a want of animation in his manner you 

 are not able to judge of the moment when he first winds 

 game, and you thus are not able to call out " Toho " until 

 he gets close to birds, quietly pull him back from his point 

 " dead.to leeward " for some paces, and there make him 

 resume his point. Perseverance in this plan will ulti- 

 mately effect your wishes, unless his nose is radically 

 wrong. A dog's pointing too near his game moie 



