114 SEARCHING NOSE. [CH. vn. 



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

 often forget the mischief which he has done. 



195. Nature gives this caution to some dogs at an early age. A 



clergyman of my acquaintance, Mr. G. M 1, a keen sportsman 



in his younger days, told me that when he was partridge-shooting 

 once in Essex, a favourite pointer of his, that was ranging at a 

 rapid pace alongside a thick hedge, coming suddenly upon an 

 opening where there should have been a gate, instantly wheeled 

 round and ran to heel, and then commenced carefully advancing 

 with a stiffened stern towards the gap ; and so led his master up to 

 five birds which were lying close to it, but on the further side. 

 Evidently the cautious dog, for he was no blinker, on so unex- 

 pectedly finding himself in such close vicinity to the covey, must 

 have fancied that his presence would alarm them, however motion- 

 less he might remain. 



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

 can do what is really 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 259 to 261, also 329.) 

 If from a want of animation in his manner you are not 

 able to judge of the moment when he first winds game, 

 and therefore are unable 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 be radically 

 wrong. A dog's pointing too near his game more fre- 

 quently arises from want of caution, in other words, 

 from want of good instruction, than from a defective 

 nose. 



197. Slow dogs readily acquire this caution ; but fast 

 dogs cannot be taught it without great labour. You 

 have to show them the necessity of diminishing their 



