2G8 SHY DOGS. 



and more appreciative of the biscuit which may from 

 time to time be given them for doing well. Dogs 

 should be trained off ground-game, if possible, before 

 they are shown birds, as when they are brought out 

 on to the grouse-ground, when this has been previously 

 carried out, their training is more than half accom- 

 plished. In cases where it has been necessary to 

 check dogs off hares severely, it often takes some 

 little time to get them up to birds, and they require to 

 be coaxed and made much of; but many dogs are 

 steady on birds from the first. I have had several 

 dogs which were naturally as staunch as they could 

 be, but which, from having necessarily been severely 

 checked on ground-game, would from sheer nervous- 

 ness blink their point and come in to heel. Some 

 very beautiful Laverack bitches I once had never 

 quite got over the habit they had thus acquired, and 

 the very fact of birds rising suddenly near them often 

 made them run in to heel ; and I experienced the 

 same with some pointers I had, which were at first 

 inclined to be gun-shy, but I managed to cure them by 

 feeding them with biscuit. Some people use meat for 

 the purpose, but though it is essential for training 

 retrievers and falcons, I always consider it to be a 

 very unwise thing to give meat to dogs, which have 

 been so carefully trained off ground-game. I have 

 known cases where dogs which have been fed on 

 mutton have become inveterate sheep-slayers, and 

 these dogs were unfortunately the very best pointers 

 I ever owned. They had been ' walked ' as puppies, 

 and in spite of all the instructions which I was careful 

 to give to the contrary, were fed on everything and 

 anything in the farmer's household. I consider that 



