150 The Dog Book 
Whether it is advisable to gradually develop the young puppy and at an 
early age teach him some of the lessons pertaining to the broken dog, is a 
much discussed question, and those who have trained dogs differ materially 
in their opinions. We have seen young puppies taught to death, one might 
say, in yard breaking, as that part of the training is called which precedes 
the actual field work. Such overtrained puppies far too often lose all 
self-reliance and are perpetually on the look out for orders by sound or 
signal, the result of too early training and ‘continual ordering. The natural 
spirit of the dog should be fostered and the education consist in learning 
the lesson of strict obedience to order when one is given, and not for the 
dog to be perpetually depending upon or expecting an order. For that 
reason many consider that it is better to leave the advanced training lessons 
till such time as a regular course of instruction can be given at an age when 
the puppy’s mental powers have been well developed and continue the 
series of lessons till his education is complete. This is feasible and for 
several reasons, the main one being that the course of training leaves no 
gaps during which there is likely to be a lapse and part of the work have to 
be gone over again, in order to bring the pupil up to the requirements of 
a further lesson. 
As we have already stated, teaching the dog to come at call or whistle, 
to wear a collar or to lead on chain without pulling is simple dog education 
and is applicable to every dog, so that it is not to be considered part of the 
education of a field dog. There is only one suggestion, however, that should 
not be overlooked and that is that the use of the whistle should be regulated 
as are the words of command, and by that we mean one style for each com- 
mand. Now the most frequent use of the whistle while in the field is that 
when a dog is wanted to change his course and it is well to make one blast 
do for that: a simple attracting attention to be followed by the motion 
for a change of course. It is therefore obvious that to call a dog in, more 
than one blast should be given even from the first time of calling the dog 
in that manner. 
The first field dog training lesson begins with the order to stop and 
this should be begun with the dog on lead and at heel. Let the trainer when 
walking stop with the word “to-ho.” We advise the use of that word, 
simply for the reason that it has been the signal used from the very earliest 
times, has become common and it does as well as anything else, besides it 
is a good sonorous sound to launch at a dog at a distance. Let this be 
