CH. XL] BAR. FRENCH SPIKE-COLLAR, 177 



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 (60). 

 These means (to be discarded, however, as soon as obe- 

 dience is established) are far better than the temporary 

 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 intellects. You want to force 

 him, when he is in the highest health and vigour, to 

 learn by experience the advantage of letting his nose 

 dwell longer on a feeble scent. 



300. 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. The sharp pointed hooks punish 

 cruelly when the checkcord is jerked. 



301. We have, however, a more modern description 

 of collar, which is far less inhuman than either of those I 

 have mentioned, but still I cannot recommend its adop- 

 tion, unless in extreme cases ; for though not so severely, 

 it, likewise, punishes the unfortunate dog, more or less, 

 by the strain of the checkcord he drags along the ground : 

 and it ought to be the great object of a good breaker as 

 little as is possible to fret or worry his pupil, that all his 

 ideas may be engaged in an anxious wish to wind birds 



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