98 EQUIPMENT. 



cause of the rapping. On his beginning again, I 

 would command and rap him as before, always 

 giving the command (the same one every time) 

 just before the rap, until, associating the command 

 with the rap to come afterwards and his biting 

 together, he soon learned to stop on hearing it in 

 time to escape the punishment. I persevered in 

 this way, sometimes giving him food and restrain- 

 ing him by this command from eating it, Until at 

 the end of two weeks (I had previously taught 

 him to fetch) he would bring to me from a dis- 

 tance pieces of meat or bread without attempting 

 to eat them unless permitted. The first crippled 

 bird he ever retrieved (a wing-tipped pigeon) he 

 carried over two hundred yards, delivering it into 

 my hand without apparently hurting it in the 

 least, and on his first day's experience with game 

 he retrieved for me in the best manner thirty- 

 seven ducks, mainly mallards. 



Accustom your dog to retrieve from the water 

 in the summer-time. If you commence to teach 

 him in water too cold, he will learn to dread it; 

 but, if a love for the sport be instilled into him 

 before he learns to fear it, he will never re- 

 fuse to retrieve, no matter what the temperature 

 may be. 



