Teaching Young Hounds to Hunt 199 



well for the individual if he is reported to be clever 

 with all the live stock including the feathered stuff. 

 He will also in this way learn the necessary lessons 

 regarding skunks, as it is a very common thing to 

 have a lot of young dogs run on the trail of a skunk 

 when returning in the evening. Should the house 

 beagle be among them it would be aw^kward, or if a 

 friend be along the experience may not be such as 

 he will care to repeat and so a good disciple may be 

 spoiled in the making ; or again on the return home 

 the effects of a contact may raise a skunk in the 

 neighborhood and amongst the neighbors if you 

 have any. 



"I have found that sheep are a great temptation 

 to one or tv/o green puppies and sometimes a per- 

 sistent one will lead other dogs into mischief when 

 they have been without the necessary work for some 

 time. This rioting seems to be a failing more 

 particularly amongst strains that are shorter eared 

 and clean in throat and free from dewlap; such 

 indications probably point to ancestry that have a 

 strain of foreign blood in them (is other than hound 

 in some form), as it is recognized that both spaniel 

 and terrier blood have been used with the idea of 

 gaining certain properties in a short, unscientific 

 way. 



"The fewer youngsters are taken out at a time 



