BREAKING. 73 



hesitate to say sportsmen will find much greater pleasure in owning 

 dogs broken by themselves than in those professionally broken. A 

 man would find but little pleasure in hiring a professional to shoot 

 for him, and the same principle will apply to professional breaking. 

 The possession of personal skill is all that gives attraction to field 

 sports, and the greater and more general this is, the greater propor- 

 tionally will be the enjoyment derived from it. The man who 

 breaks his own dogs finds in their performance a reward for his 

 labor, and in their perfection a proof of his own ability, which is 

 flattering, yet a legitimate cause for satisfaction. Every man de- 

 lights in the skilful work of his own hands, and feels for such an 

 affection he will never feel for that which he pays for. For a noble 

 dog every true man has this affection, but when that nobility is de- 

 veloped by the man himself, the sympathy between man and brute, 

 which has existed from time immemorial, is tenfold strengthened 

 and intensified. 



The only other obstacle which lies in the way of the amateur 

 breaker is supposed want of time. No greater mistake is ever made, 

 for all the time necessary is those odd, spare moments which come 

 in every day, and which are idled away unnoticed. If leisure 

 moments are profitably and pleasantly employed, they are not only 

 utilized but also enjoyed, and that they can be profitably and pleas- 

 antly applied to breaking a very brief experience will demonstrate 

 beyond question. A single trial will satisfy the most sceptical, as it 

 has satisfied others in the past, and it is to render such trials success- 

 ful that we shall now give the plan of breaking which we have found 

 the best in a long life of field experience. 



BREAKING, HOW DIVIDED. 



Breaking is properly divided into that of the yard and the field. 

 The former includes bringing the dog under control, teaching him 

 to understand what certain orders mean and to obey them. The latter 

 covers work in the field upon game and the application of the pre^- 

 liminary instruction to such work. This course is adapted to dogs 

 that have never been handled and that have no confirmed faults, to 



