CHAPTER XIII 



CHOOSING A SHOOTING DOG 



When the amateur sportsman has means and 

 opportunity, the easiest and the cheapest method 

 of making a selection is to buy a matured dog 

 which has beauty, style, speed, nose, brains, fash- 

 ionable pedigree, and a finished education. But 

 such dogs are not picked up every day, and, like 

 horses of the same class, come high when you 

 undertake to purchase them from men who un- 

 derstand their value. 



In selecting a dog or judging a man it is a 

 good rule not to pass judgment on defects alone. 

 There never was a perfect dog, and critics of the 

 shallow sort are fond of exhibiting their knowl- 

 edge by dwelling on minor defects. What you 

 desire, primarily, is a dog of fairly good looks and 

 a reliable efficiency of work. Keep those qualities 

 always in mind. Of course, you wish to escape 

 all blemishes as far as possible ; but do not be 

 misled into condemning a dog good in essentials 

 because somebody perceives a few hairs too many 

 at the end of the tail or a fraction of an inch less 

 leather than he fancies in the ear. 



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