UNDUE SEVERITY DEPRECATED. 281 



them show any symptoms of insubordination, when, if the 

 voice is not sufficient, the whip must be used, proportioning its 

 severity to the peculiar temper of the individual offender, but 

 recollecting that one good sound thrashing is better than a dozen 

 trifling ones. Many puppies are irretrievably ruined by the 

 constant use of the whip, so that when slipped at a hare they do 

 not know whether to give chase or to slink behind their master's 

 heels. This feature in the puppy always detects a bad rearer of 

 the whelp, and if I found it the case I would never trust the same 

 individual to rear greyhounds for me a second time. In fact, if 

 you can only stop your puppies short of doing actual injury the 

 less you interfere with them the better. But I believe that the 

 art of rearing them is truly a gift, like that of teaching children, 

 in which few of us have attained the happy knack of procuring 

 subordination without destroying the spirit of the individual by 

 undue severity. If very mischievous, so as to be quite beyond 

 control without extreme severity, I find it answers better to take 

 the puppies out with a muzzle on, than to use the whip too much ; 

 many dogs are most determined cat-killers, and with them the 

 muzzle is almost a sine qua non where they are exercised in such 

 situations as to meet with many of these animals. Others are 

 inveterate runners of sheep, and though they will at first attempt 

 to do the same with the muzzle on, they soon find out their 

 powerlessness to do mischief, and give up the chase. There is 

 also an advantage connected with the muzzle which has hitherto 

 been overlooked, namely that it prevents the dog wearing it 

 from getting hold of improper food, and then becoming infested 



