270 JEALOUSY OF DOGS 



death, though I had given high prices for them. 

 Those puppies we trained ourselves never gave much 

 trouble, and nearly always turned out satisfactory. 

 Save where they were very highly bred, I have found 

 it easier to train dogs than any other animal, and in 

 the hands of a competent and good-tempered trainer, 

 they are most singularly apt to learn. Of course, 

 there are some very little difficulties which require to 

 be overcome, as, for instance, jealousy, w^hen two 

 brothers are working together ; and in one or two 

 instances I never quite succeeded in getting such dogs 

 to work well toofether, and have therefore been forced 

 to part them and work them with other dogs not 

 related to them, and then they would work to per- 

 fection. All the same, jealousy is useful at times in 

 serving to rouse up dogs which are inclined to be lazy, 

 and which would blink their point. A good dog- 

 trainer is well aware of the value of jealousy in many 

 instances, especially in completing the training of some 

 dogs. I once possessed some pointers which were 

 jealous and over-anxious to have the first point : when 

 the training of these dogs was completed, they were 

 priced by one of our best judges as being worth a 

 hundred pounds a-piece. I worked one of them for 

 eight seasons, and after he had been working for five 

 years he became stone-deaf ; but to the last he worked 

 just as well as if he had heard every order given to 

 him. Now, if this dog (Bosco) had not been trained 

 on the silent system, he would have been useless for 

 all shooting purposes, and I should have been forced 

 to either give him away or keep him as a stud dog. 

 As it was, he lasted me for three years longer, and 

 was invaluable, even though so deaf. He was not 



