68 THE KEEPER'S BOOK 



aid of his " poodle," brought them to bag. Other men, 

 other ways. Still, the conditions are not so changed 

 that we can get through a day's sport without the 

 assistance of our canine friends, and it is in the hope 

 of bringing the importance of this still more promin- 

 ently before a very intelligent class of men that we are 

 encouraged to write these few pages. The average 

 sportsman is a tender-hearted man, of sensitive dis- 

 position, and nothing mars the day's pleasure more 

 than the feeling that, owing to having inferior dogs, a 

 number of wounded animals have not been picked up ; 

 and if, as probably he will be, a man who shoots a 

 good deal, he cannot help contrasting the result with 

 such and such a place where he has just been shooting, 

 and which, owing to the superior training of his friend's 

 dogs, was the source of much comment and much satis- 

 faction to the various ''guns." How often has the 

 present]writer heard in the smoking-room this remark, 

 made too by one who, from his experience, was a cap- 

 able judge : " I have only known three keepers in my 

 life to whom I could entrust a dog to train for me." 

 This, if true, shows how little the subject is attended 

 to by gamekeepers as a class, and the present writer 

 will sufficiently endorse it by remarking that the atten- 

 tion paid to this subject by gamekeepers as a whole is 

 far below what it ought to be. I do not altogether 

 blame them, but, on the contrary, I believe that owners 

 and shooting tenants are solely responsible for this state 

 of affairs. Not one in ten of shooting men takes any 



