314 EMPLOYMENT OF THE DOG IN HUNTING, ETC. 
hand. Let him, therefore, content himself with creeping before 
he runs, and let him undertake a brace or two at the most for a 
season before he rushes into the thick of the contest. No one 
can hope for much success who keeps a very large kennel under 
the management of one man, because he cannot do justice to more 
than eight or ten running dogs; but at first he had better content 
himself with half that number, and he will find afterwards that 
he has made many mistakes about these. It is also very difficult 
to purchase good dogs, though occasionally they may be met with ; 
but when a young courser begins, he wants the experience which 
is required to know how to select them. On all these accounts, 
therefore, he had better begin by sporting a brace, and in the 
meantime he can be bringing forward a moderate number of 
puppies bred by himself, which will be ready for work in a year 
or two. 
The kennel management of greyhounds has been described at page 
260, and it only remains to describe the method of training which 
is adopted for the purpose of enabling them to bear the severe work 
often experienced in going through a stake. ‘Many a greyhound 
will run one course quite as well without training as with, that is, 
if it is not a long one; but there are few untrained dogs that will 
go on through a series of courses as well as if they had had the 
pains bestowed upon them which a man of experience would be 
able to give. It is often said that certain dogs have run better 
untrained than trained, but this only shows that the training in 
their particular case was mismanaged ; for if they had been treated 
properly, they would not have been worked to the extent which 
produced the change for the worse. Scarcely any two dogs require 
the same treatment, and the chief art in training is to discover the 
exact amount which each will bear and require in order to bring 
him out to the best advantage. It must, therefore, be understood 
that by training is here meant the act of preparing a dog for certain 
public performances in the way best fitted for each individual; and 
that it does not by any means consist in putting him through a 
specified course of physic, diet, and work, which, in his case, may 
be altogether unsuited to him. 
Before commencing to train a greyhound it is necessary to consider 
what condition he is in at the time, and what amount of work he 
