CHAPTER VI 
WILDFOWL DOGS AND HOW TO BREAK 
THEM 
Wuat are the best breeds of dog for wildfowling? Some 
persons will say, Any breed that can swim and retrieve will 
make a suitable animal; but, alas! that is not the case. 
With reference to such ideas J at once contend that those who 
advocate the ‘‘thoroughbred mongrel” for any purpose in 
wildfowling are not likely ever to possess a good animal for 
this class of work. 
It must be remembered that as much depends upon the 
handling of a dog as the breaking, and that if a person 
is unable to handle a dog he will soon spoil it, no matter 
how clever a working animal it may have been to start with. 
This applies accordingly to all grades of shooters. At the 
outset, therefore, it would be wise to observe that as much 
skill may be displayed in working a dog as in shooting. 
Working a dog satisfactorily is not a task anyone can per- 
form even after years of experience. I mention this well 
knowing many people believe that, a dog being trained, any- 
one can work it, which is, of course, a palpable mistake. 
To get back to our breed question, the inability of a person 
to see the advantage of any particular breed is invariably due 
to ignorance of the various breeds of the canine family. This 
is furthermore evidenced by -his faulty selection of a breed. 
To arrive at a means by which a breed of dog may be chosen 
for such work as wildfowling, we might, for the moment at 
least, accept the theory of evolution in animals. As I have 
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