586 DOG-BREAKING. 



feelingly admonish him to lessen his stride. If he get* 

 it between his legs and thus finds it no annoyance, attach 

 it to both sides of his collar from points near the 

 extremities. One of his forelegs might occasionally be 

 passed through the collar ; but this plan is not so good 

 as the other; nor as the strap on the hind leg 56. 

 These means to be discarded, however, as soon as 

 obedience is established are far better than the tempo- 

 rary ascendancy which some breakers establish by low 

 diet and excessive work, which would only weaken his 

 spirits and his bodily powers, without eradicating his self 

 will, or improving his intellect. You want to force him, 

 when he is in the highest health and vigor, to learn by 

 experience the advantage of letting his nose dwell longer 

 on a feeble scent. 



203. I have made no mention of the spiked collar, 

 because it is a brutal instrument, which none but the 

 most ignorant or unthinking would employ. It is a 

 leather collar, into which nails, much longer than the 

 thickness of the collar, have been driven, with their 

 points projecting inwards. The French spike-collar is 

 nearly as severe. It is formed of a series of wooden 

 balls, larger than marbles, linked about two and a 

 half inches apart into a chain by stiff wires bent into the 

 form of hooks. These sharp pointed hooks punish cruelly 

 when the checkcord is jerked. 



204. We have, however, a more modern description of 

 collar, which is far less inhuman than either of thosr 

 I have mentioned, but still I cannot recormnend its 



