. POINTERS AND SETTERS. 301 
his education, further than to remark that after each point, or, 
indeed, directly after birds rise under any circumstances, the 
dog should be made to drop by the voice, using the order, “ Down 
charge!” or by raising the hand if the eye of the dog can be 
caught. When this practice is made habitual there is little 
trouble in carrying out the order until the gun is added; but 
then it will be found that great patience and forbearance are 
required to prevent the dog from running to his birds as they 
drop; for if this is allowed, it is sure to make him unsteady in 
every case as soon ag his eye catches sight of game, whether after 
the point or not. It is now that the advantage of having made 
the dog drop to the gun is manifested, for the first thing he 
thinks of when the gun is fired is the necessity for dropping, and 
if this is encouraged all goes on well. Too often the shooter him- 
self produces unsteadiness by disregarding his dog at the moment 
when he ought to attend to him most particularly, and by run- 
ning in himself to take care of his “bag,” considering that more 
important than the steadiness of his dog. It is true that a runner 
is sometimes lost by the delay of a few seconds while the dis- 
charged barrel is reloaded; but, in the long run, the shooter who 
keeps his dog down till he has loaded will bag the most game. 
The faults which chiefly require correction at this stage are— 
blinking, shying the gun, pottering at the hedges, hunting too wide, 
and chasing fur. The vice of blinking has been caused by over- 
severity in punishment for chasing poultry, &c., and takes a great 
deal of time to remove. Indeed, until the dog sees game killed 
he seldom loses the fear which has produced it. It is, therefore, 
frequently useless to continue the breaking in the spring, although 
such a dog sometimes becomes very useful by careful manage- 
ment in the shooting season. Generally speaking, it is occasioned 
by undue severity, either applied for chasing cats or poultry, or 
for chasing game when first hunted. The former kind of castiga- 
tion should be very cautiously applied, as the puppy is very apt 
to associate the punishment given for the chasing of game with 
that due to the destruction. of poultry or cats; and as he has been 
compelled to leave the latter by the use of the whip, and has been 
afterwards kept “ at heel,” so he thinks he must do so now, and 
in fear he comes’ there, and consequently “blinks his birds.” 
