652 DOG-BREAKING. 



his instruction with mildness rather than severity, 

 I trust that you will be induced to give it a fair trial, 

 and if you find it successful, recommend its adoption. 



314. I dare not ask for the same favor at the hands 

 of the generality of regular trainers I have no right to 

 expect such liberality. They, naturally enough, will not 

 readily forgive my intruding upon what they consider 

 exclusively their own domain, and, above all, they 

 will not easily pardon my urging every sportsman to 

 break in his own dogs. They will, I know, endeavor to 

 persuade their employers that the finished education 

 which I have described is useless, or quite unattainable, 

 without a great sacrifice of time ; and that, therefore, the 

 system which I advocate is a bad one. They will wish 

 it to be forgotten that I advise a gradual advance, step 

 by step, from the A, B, C ; that accomplishments have 

 only been recommended after the acquisition of essen- 

 tials never at the expense of essentials ; that at any 

 moment it is in the instructor's power to say, " I am 

 now satisfied with the extent of my pupil's acquirements, 

 and have neither leisure nor inclination to teach him 

 more ;" and that they cannot suggest quicker means of 

 imparting any grade of education, however incomplete ; 

 at least they do not I wish they would ; few would 

 thank them more than myself. 



315. Greatly vexed at the erroneous way in which I 

 saw some dogs instructed in the north by one who from 

 his profession should have known better, I promised, on 

 the impulse of the moment, to write. If I could have 



