CHAPTER XVII 



TRAINING AND CARE 



Most writers advise amateurs not to train their 

 own shooting dogs, on the principle of every 

 man to his trade. In the general interest of field 

 education the contrary advice should be given. 

 The amateur who trains his own dog may not 

 queer the dog, and cannot fail to do himself a 

 world of good. It is a fact of statistics that nine 

 dogs are well trained for the field where one man 

 is qualified to associate with either a dog of good 

 field manners or a sportsman of discretion. Grad- 

 uates in the school of experience will agree with- 

 out dissent that the training of dogs is a lesser 

 problem than that of training the men who do the 

 shooting. Among the drawbacks of the sport is 

 the misfortune that in almost every party there is 

 an individual who acts the role of salt in the ice 

 cream and fly in the ointment. He yells at every 

 new movement of the dog ; he breaks shot ; he 

 cannot let the dog retrieve in peace, but must rush 

 up and grab the bird ; he will shoot at rabbits and 

 larks ; he does everything to make the dog com- 

 mit the faults which a year of education has barely 



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