TRAINING AND HUNTING 43 



many bad habits are contracted in this crude 

 method that, once instilled in the system, are 

 almost impossible to eradicate and are fre- 

 quently transmitted to their progeny. The 

 hound is gregarious by nature, preferring to 

 hunt in packs, but the undeviating perseverance 

 and high courage of the American hound 

 makes it easier to train him to hunt alone than 

 is possible with the English hound, whose train- 

 ing is generally in a pack. Pack training, how- 

 ever, has a tendency to destroy the self-reliance 

 and independence so natural to the American 

 hound, which hunts independently of hound or 

 man and seldom expects or receives assistance 

 from either. 



Different methods and conditions in hunting 

 are responsible for the widely divergent dif- 

 ference in hounds in the field, though practi- 

 cally of the same strain and breeding. Hounds 

 for use in the North and in New England, 

 where a single hound is hunted, require a far 

 more systematic training and education than 

 the pack hound of the South. The dog should 

 be taught by means of the check cord to fol- 

 Jow his master " at heel," become accustomed 

 voice, to jump in and out of a vehicle at com- 

 ^to strange sights, and to come when called by 

 mand, and to ride quietly therein. He should 



