80 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



as good an all-round dog as one would wish to shoot over, 

 but with other dogs in the field, the most useless and jealous 

 brute imaginable. What would have been the probable 

 result had we sent that particular spaniel out on hire 

 without fully explaining his peculiar traits ? Simply this : 

 The dog would have been returned as absolutely useless 

 and its owner dubbed an infernal impostor for having 

 hired him out as a reliable gun-dog. A number of years 

 have flown by since our good and faithful servant Jock 

 departed to " the happy hunting-grounds." We have 

 owned and trained not a few dogs since then, and have 

 discovered some peculiarly interesting traits, good and 

 bad, in well-nigh every individual animal taken in hand. 

 We repeat that the hired gun-dog usually proves " a 

 snare and a delusion." As before mentioned, however, 

 there are a few kennels from which good working dogs may 

 be obtained at reasonable rates — anything cheap is gener- 

 ally nasty — per week, month or season, as required. 

 Any one who wishes to hire a gun-dog would be well 

 advised in requesting the editor of one of the sporting 

 journals to furnish him with the name of an owner or 

 breaker of good repute. Having hired your dog, grant 

 him a fair chance and sufficient time to become used to you 

 and to his new habitat. Do not take the poor creature 

 into the shooting-field the day after his arrival in your 

 kennel and then return him as useless because, forsooth, 

 he does not work to your satisfaction. Rather try him 

 round the boundaries of your shooting with a gun in 

 the first place, and by so doing you will very soon learn 

 whether he be of any use or not. 



