84 



and find objects under increasing difficulties, till his certainty of 

 discovery becomes almost wonderful. When brought to this point 

 in his education, the dog cannot be worked too frequently, with, of 

 course, reasonable regard to fatiguing him. He should be taken 

 frequently for a walk, and practised in all the various lessons he 

 has been taught, and the more attention and encouragement he 

 receives the greater will be his progress, and the greater return 

 will he make when he comes to field work. If properly handled 

 so far, he will have lost all the fear which the forcing to retrieve has 

 awakened, and will be a courageous, willing performer of all he 

 knows. 



As we have said, the time necessary for instruction will vary in 

 proportion to the character of the dog and the intelligence of his 

 teacher. We have had dogs that would retrieve perfectly in two 

 weeks from date of the first lesson, while others have cost us a 

 month's hard work. No period can therefore be named within 

 which a man may expect to succeed, but, speaking from experience, 

 we say the system we have given is not only the best, but also the 

 quickest in producing results of all we have seen tried. 



BEATING AND QUARTERING. 



The last of our yard lessons is in beating and quartering the 

 ground. We have divided it in this way because quartering means 

 simply a systematic right and left range, and under certain circum- 

 stances, as on the edges of thickets, or along fences and hedges, 

 where birds resort when scattered, such work is not needed, as the 

 ground to be covered is so limited that a straight forward beat will 

 bring the dog to all the birds, and save him the fatigue of unneces- 

 sary labor. 



To teach quartering, we take the dog into an open field and send 

 him on, then by a single blast of the whistle attract his attention, 

 and by a wave of the hand in a direction at right angles to our 

 course endeavor to turn him, turning ourselves if necessary, and 

 walking on the new line. When the dog has gone a short distance 

 we again whistle, and with a wave of the hand turn him so as to go 



