230 The Sporting Dog 



which to inculcate the self-control of education 

 without diminishing range, speed, and zest in the 

 search. 



A trainer cannot give knowledge to a dog; 

 that comes only with natural intelligence and 

 experience. What the trainer does is to estab- 

 lish habits contrary to the dog's natural inclina- 

 tions. This cannot be done except by lessons 

 many, many, many times repeated. The principle 

 is stated in the phrase, "steady coercion, sym- 

 pathetically applied." 



What the bow is to the fiddler, the hammer to 

 the smith, the color-box to the painter, the check- 

 cord is to the dog trainer. There are men who 

 will tell you that they train by stinging their dogs 

 with bird shot when not obedient. Others tell 

 you that thumping with a stick, or punching 

 with a gun-barrel, or a few kicks in the ribs will 

 do the work. For that kind of men that kind of 

 training may be all right. A dog often becomes 

 good by mere experience in spite of such obsta- 

 cles, but his goodness must not be credited to 

 the mistake in treatment. The many uses of the 

 check-cord combined with the spike collar, need 

 not be recited, but, in a general way, the amateur 

 can make no mistake if he understands that the 

 check-cord is used in establishing nearly all the 

 acts which a field dog learns to perform as a part 

 of training. With the cord you make a dog 



