110 SYSTEMATIC RANGE. [CH. vi. 



whenever you have occasion to scold or punish him, 

 make it a constant rule, while you rate him, to repeat 

 many times the word of command, or the signal which 

 he has neglected to obey. There is no other way by 

 which you will make him understand you quickly. 



189. You must expect that your young dog will for 

 some time make sad mistakes in his range ; but be not 

 discouraged. Doubtless there is no one thing, I was 

 going to say, that there are no dozen things, in the 

 whole art of dog-breaking, which are so difficult to 

 attain, or which exact so much labour, as a high, well- 

 confirmed, systematic range. Nature will not assist 

 you : you must do it all yourself ; but in recompense 

 there is nothing so advantageous when it is at length 

 acquired. It will abundantly repay months of perse- 

 vering exertion. It constitutes the grand criterion of 

 true excellence. Its attainment makes a dog of inferior 

 nose and action far superior to one of much greater 

 natural qualifications who may be tomfooling about, 

 galloping backwards and forwards sometimes over iden- 

 tically the same ground, quite uselessly exerting his 

 travelling powers ; now and then, indeed, arrested by 

 the suspicion of a haunt, which he is not experienced 

 enough, or sufficiently taught, to turn to good account, 

 and occasionally brought to a stiff point on birds acci- 

 dentally found right under his nose. It is undeniable, 

 cceteris paribus, that the dog who hunts his ground most 

 according to rule must in the end find most game. 



