THE DOG 75 



freely through heather or jump a fence, as in the case 

 of a retriever, he must be good in his hind quarters. 



And the feet, too, are of the first importance. No 

 matter how good he is in the foregoing points, with bad 

 feet he will be a failure. See that those are of a suitable 

 size, compact, toes close, not spreading and arched. 



The chief points, therefore, to be desired in a work- 

 ing dog are a good head and eye, light shoulders, strong 

 loins, powerful thighs, and compact feet. Given those 

 in our chosen puppy, and we start well with an animal 

 better than our neighbour's, and we hope to make him 

 above the average in other respects. 



Training a Dog 



It would be quite impossible in our limited space to 

 give full instructions on this subject ; and, moreover, 

 there exist so many capital treatises on this subject that 

 it is unnecessary. In our opinion, therefore, it will serve 

 a more useful purpose to point out some of the errors 

 which many trainers make in the training of their dogs, 

 and, if possible, to suggest the remedy. At this stage, 

 we would like to recall to any novice the importance of 

 an aid of great value in the hands of our grandfathers, 

 and which unfortunately, in our opinion, has fallen into 

 disuse. We refer to the use of the check-cord. By its 

 means the most refractory puppy can be brought to 

 reason in a third of the time and with a minimum of 

 labour, and certainly with greater comfort to the pupil 

 and his master. We shall refer to this again. 



