196 The Sporting Dog 



was a very large setter bitch that I sold to Fred 

 M. Stevenson of Menominee, Michigan, and if this 

 should by any chance catch his eye, I think he 

 will approve of what I say. Though she was up 

 in years when I sold her to him, she was still a 

 wonderful good dog to shoot over. 



Woodcock are not plentiful enough in this 

 country for there to be any real cock dogs. 

 There are no dogs hereabouts kept for exclusive 

 use on woodcock, their experience being limited 

 to one or two odd birds that are picked up in a 

 day's shooting on quail and partridge. 



Much the same might be said of snipe, for, ex- 

 cept along the St. Clair flats, there are very few 

 snipe to be found here. 



In reference to the manner in which a dog should 

 be broken, while I believe that the more a dog 

 is taught the more useful he will be as a shooting 

 dog, yet overtraining often takes place, from the 

 natural quality of the dog himself. For a field 

 trial dog, of course, I do not advocate such a high 

 degree of training as for a shooting dog. I think 

 a field trial dog should be taught to be only obedi- 

 ent to whistle and motion of hand, to point and 

 back stanchly, and let his other natural qualities de- 

 velop themselves. He will be a more brilliant dog 

 than if taught to be too dependent upon his hand- 

 lers. On the other hand, for field shooting, in my 

 opinion, a dog that retrieves is much more killing 



