CH. IL] DOG YOUR COMPANION. 11 



birds, will you ? " The word " Toho " then begins to 

 assume a most awful character ; he naturally connects 

 it with the finding of game, and not understanding a 

 syllable of the lecture, lest he should a third time hear 

 it, and get a third drubbing, he judges it most prudent, 

 (unless he is a dog of very high courage) when next 

 aware of the presence of birds, to come in to heel ; and 

 thus he commences to be a blinker, thanks to the 

 sagacity and intelligence of his tutor. I do not speak 

 of all professional dog-breakers, far from it. Many are 

 fully sensible that comprehension of orders must neces- 

 sarily precede all but accidental obedience. I am only 

 thinking of some whom it has been my misfortune to 

 see, and who haye many a time made my blood boil at 

 their brutal usage of a fine high-couraged young dog. 

 Men who had a strong arm and hard heart to punish, 

 but no temper and no head to instruct. 



18. So long as you are a bachelor, you can make a 

 companion of your dog, without incurring the danger 

 of his being spoiled by your wife and children ; (the 

 more, by-the-bye, he is your own companion and no 

 other person's the better) and it is a fact, though . you 

 may smile at the assertion, that all the initiatory lessons 

 can be, and can best be, inculcated in your own break- 

 fast-room. 



19. Follow Astley's plan. Let no one be present to 

 distract the dog's attention. Call him to you by the 

 whistle you propose always using in the field. Tie a 

 slight cord a few yards long to his collar. Throw him 

 a small piece of toast or meat, saying, at the time, 

 "Dead, dead/' Do this several times, chucking it into 

 different parts of the room, and let him eat what he 

 finds. Then throw a piece (always as you do so saying, 

 "Dead"), and the moment he gets close to it, check 



