WILDFOWL DOGS—HOW TO BREAK THEM 67 
hand at four months old. The idea of having your pupil 
under view so young, is not that his breaking may be then 
started, but that he may, by careful attention, be prevented 
from acquiring many bad habits, such as jumping up, tearing 
things to pieces, and so on, which are troublesome to eradicate. 
At six or seven months breaking should be commenced. 
For example, let us suppose we have secured a puppy of the 
right calibre and intend to break him. The first lessons 
should be to teach him to disregard everyone except his 
master, to follow closely to heel (in a leash at first), and 
‘“‘drop” instantly the word ‘‘down” is shouted. It will be 
necessary at first to press him to the ground, but after a few 
such pressings and by using the word ‘‘down” he will soon 
know exactly what is wanted. Carry out the ‘‘down” charge to 
extremes at first by shouting to him as he runs past, thereby 
teaching him to heed and act instantly to the order. This 
is not a great necessity in his later work, but it answers admir- 
ably the purpose of letting the dog know he is under attention 
and must act according to orders. After about a month of 
daily lessons of an hour’s duration he should be under very 
good control. He is then ready to be taught the more practical 
part of his work. 
Before going on to describe his breaking proper it will be 
well to add that the orders given the dog should be as concise 
as possible. What I mean is that the trainer should avoid 
long sentences. and contrive his commands in single syllables 
if possible. This also applies to the field name given to the 
dog. My idea on this point is to choose a name of one 
syllable only, such as Jack, Knot, Bang, Nap, Duke, Cane, 
Eve, and Whip, avoiding two or more syllables and words 
with the ‘‘s” sound in them, which have the undesired result 
of setting a dog to seek when his name is shouted. I will 
note the words of command that I have found answer best, and 
later, as we proceed with the dog’s breaking, the reader may 
