CHAPTER XXIV 

 THE RETRIEVERS 



IT is obviously useless to shoot game unless you can find it 

 after it has been wounded or killed, and from the earliest times 

 it has been the habit of sportsmen to train their dogs to do the 

 work which they could not always successfully do for them- 

 selves. The Pointers, Setters, and Spaniels of our forefathers 

 were carefully broken not only to find and stand their game, 

 but also to fetch the fallen birds. This use of the setting and 

 pointing dog is still common on the Continent and in the 

 United States, and there is no inaccuracy in a French artist 

 depicting a Pointer with a partridge in its mouth, or showing 

 a Setter retrieving waterfowl. 



The Springer and the old curly-coated water-dog were 

 regarded as particularly adroit in the double work of finding 

 and retrieving. Pointers and Setters who had been thus 

 broken were found to deteriorate in steadiness in the field, 

 and it gradually came to be realised that even the Spaniel's 

 capacity for retrieving was limited. A larger and quicker 

 dog was wanted to divide the labour, and to be used solely 

 as a retriever in conjunction with the other gun dogs. The 

 Poodle was tried for retrieving with some success, and he 

 showed considerable aptitude in finding and fetching wounded 

 wild duck ; but he, too, was inclined to maul his birds and 

 deliver them dead. Even the old English Sheepdog was 

 occasionally engaged in the work, and various crosses with 

 Spaniel or Setter and Collie were attempted in the endeavour 

 to produce a grade breed having the desired qualities of a good 

 nose, a soft mouth, and an understanding brain, together with 



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