BREAKING. 79 



and to meet such contingencies he should be taught to put his nose 

 down between his paws at the command " close," or when at a dis- 

 tance, by a second down wave of the hand after he has dropped to 

 the first. 



Having thoroughly drilled the dog thus far, we now practice him 

 in both stopping and dropping till he fully distinguishes between 

 them. It often happens that he will drop at "ho" or the raised 

 hand after being worked in dropping. In such cases we walk up 

 and raise him to his feet, giving the " ho" and emphasizing it by a 

 slap under the belly. No advance in instruction must be made 

 till both stop and drop are thoroughly learned. 



FOLLOWING AT HEEL. 



For this we again put the cord on the dog, and taking him up 

 short, with hand behind our back, compel him to follow, repress- 

 ing all attempts to push forward by the order " back," and a light 

 tap on the nose with a switch. The two great points in this lesson 

 are to make the dog follow, and also to keep up with us. If the 

 latter is not taught, the dog will get into a habit of stopping to 

 play with others he meets, or to pay attention to anything that 

 attracts his notice. The first is taught as we have shown, and the 

 second may be by a sharp twitch upon the cord whenever he 

 loiters, accompanied at first by the order " come." 



The signal to come to heel is given by a backward wave of the 

 hand. 



RETRIEVING. 



More dogs are ruined by bad systems of teaching retrieving 

 than by all other errors . in breaking. Some are played with and 

 coaxed into it, and so are made hard-mouthed, or are led to con- 

 sider it mere sport, and refuse when circumstances strip it of pleas- 

 ure. Others are forced by spike-collars or the whip, by which 

 some are made obstinate beyond control, and others are so fright- 

 ened that they never obey except under evident protest, that utterly 

 destroys all beauty of action. Upon good retrieving a large por- 

 tion of the sportsman's success depends, and it can be so taught 



