THE RETRIEVERS 141 



or walked-up a well-broken, soft-mouthed Retriever is unques- 

 tionably superior to Pointer, Setter, or Spaniel, and for general 

 work in the field he is the best companion that a shooting 

 man can possess. 



Doubtless in earlier days, when the art of training was less 

 thoroughly understood, the breaking of a dog was a matter of 

 infinite trouble to breeders. Most of the gun dogs could be 

 taught by patience and practice to retrieve fur or feather, but 

 game carefully and skilfully shot is easily rendered valueless 

 by being mumbled and mauled by powerful jaws not schooled 

 to gentleness. And this question of a tender mouth was 

 certainly one of the problems that perturbed the minds of the 

 originators of the breed. The difficulty was overcome by 

 process of selection, and by the exclusion from breeding 

 operations of all hard-mouthed specimens, with the happy 

 effect that in the present time it is exceptional to find a 

 working Retriever who does not know how to bring his bird 

 to hand without injuring it. A better knowledge of what is 

 expected of him distinguishes our modern Retriever. He 

 knows his duty, and is intensely eager to perform it, but he 

 no longer rushes off unbidden at the firing of the gun. He 

 has learned to remain at heel until he is ordered by word or 

 gesture from his master, upon whom he relies as his friend and 

 director. 



It would be idle to expect that the offspring of unbroken 

 sire and dam can be as easily educated as a Retriever 

 whose parents before him have been properly trained. 

 Inherited qualities count for a great deal in the adaptability 

 of all sporting dogs, and the reason why one meets with so 

 many Retrievers that are incapable or disobedient or gun-shy 

 is simply that their preliminary education has been neglected 

 the education which should begin when the dog is very young. 



In his earliest youth he should be trained to prompt 

 obedience to a given word or a wave of the hand. It is well 

 to teach him very early to enter water, or he may be found 

 wanting when you require him to fetch a bird from river or 



