132 DOGS FOR THE MOORS. 



fancies them perfect, and only finds out their bad breeding 

 and nose after a week's shooting.* To assist the judgment 

 of the uninitiated, I have given accurate likenesses of the 

 two best pointers I ever had. I know some faults might 

 be found in them, but they have all the main requisites. 



If your dogs are well bred, the great secret of making 

 them first-rate on the moor is, never to pass over a fault, 

 never to chastise with great severity nor in a passion, and 

 to kill plenty of game over them. There are two faults, 

 however, to which dogs, otherwise valuable, are some- 

 times addicted ; these give the sportsman great annoyance, 

 but may often be more easily corrected than he is aware. 

 One is the inveterate habit, contracted through bad 

 breaking, of running in when the bird drops. This trick 

 is acquired from the breaker's carelessness, in not always 

 making the dog fall down when birds rise, a rule which 

 should never be neglected, on any pretence. The steadiness 

 of a dog, whether old or young, depends entirely upon its being 

 rigidly observed. After the fault of running in is once 

 learned, the quickest remedy is the trash-cord and spiked 

 collar; but many gentlemen buy dogs before shooting 

 over them, and commence their day's sport without these 

 appendages. They are thus obliged either to couple up 

 the dog, or run the risk of having any birds that remain, 



* Dogs of this kind remind me of an anecdote I remember to have 

 heard from a brother sportsman, but for the truth of which I cannot 

 vouch. "Walking out with a high-broke pointer, he suddenly missed him, 

 when he presently espied him soberly and submissively following the 

 heels of an old Guinea-fowl, whose reiterated cry of " Come back ! Come 

 back ! " he had thought it his duty to obey ! ! 



