CONCLUSION. 



585. GENTLE Reader, according to the courteous phraseology of 

 old novels, though most probably I ought to say, Brother Sports- 

 man; if you have had the patience to attend me through the 

 preceding pages, while I have been describing the educational 

 course of a dog from almost his infancy, up to maturity, I will 

 hope that I may construe that patience into an evidence that they 

 have afforded you some amusement and, perhaps, some useful 

 instruction. 



586. Though I may have failed in persuading you to undertake 

 the instruction of your dogs yourself, yet I trust I have shown you 

 how they ought to be broken in;* and if you are a novice in the 

 field, I hope I have clearly explained to you in what manner they 

 ought to be shot over, a knowledge which no one can possess by 

 intuition, and which you will find nearly as essential to the preserva- 

 tion of the good qualities of well-tutored dogs, as to the education 

 of uninformed ones. 



587. I believe that all I have said is perfectly true, and, as the 

 system which I have described advocates kind treatment of man's 

 most faithful companion, and 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. 



588. I dare not ask for the same favour 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 sports- 

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

 persuade their employers that the finished education which I have 

 described is useless, or quite unattainable, without a great sacrifice 

 of tinie;f and that, therefore, the system which I advocate is a bad 



* A right good sportsman, in + Is it quite certain that the 



days long gone by, gave this ad- keepers who plead their inability 



vice to his son " a true chip of to devote more time to the im- 



the old block," "Don't get an provement of their masters' dogs 



experienced keeper wedded to his have never found time to break in 



own customs and prejudices ; but dogs belonging to strangers ? If 



engage a young man fond of sport. a keeper would but make it a rule 



Break him to your mind ; and while he is going his rounds by 



then, and not until then, will you day (to examine his traps, &c.) to 



have dogs broken to your mind." allow each of his pupils in turn 



to 



