330 BREAKING AND ENTERING. 



or setter, unless lie is also wanted to retrieve, in which latter 

 case such a nose will be found to be defective. But of this also 

 we shall come to a more close understanding in a future part 

 of this inquiry. In addition to the use of the " puzzle-peg," — 

 which should only be resorted to in extreme cases, and even in them 

 is, as I before remarked, of doubtful 1 utility, — the voice should 

 be used to cheer the dog when he dwells on the scent too long, 

 or carries his nose too low. " Hold up ! " may be cried in a 

 cheering way, and the dog encouraged with the hand waved 

 forward as well. Colonel Hutchinson recommends the previous 

 inculcation of the perception of height, — in fact, to make the 

 dog understand that you mean, when you use the word " Up," 

 that he should raise his head. But this is a refinement in 

 dog-breaking which possibly may be carried out, yet which, I 

 confess, I think- practically inoperative. Few of us would like 

 to teach our hacks to lift their knees, by giving them to under- 

 stand the nature of height, and then telling them to lift them. 

 We should certainly find it much more simple to select hacks 

 with good action, or to breed them even, rather than to convert 

 our colt-breakers into circus-men. If there were no other method 

 of attaining the object, by all means adopt it ; but, when a 

 far easier one is at hand, I should certainly select it in pre- 

 ference. Nevertheless, it may serve to prove the teachableness 

 of the dog; and, knowing the extent to which his education 

 may be carried by patience aud perseverance, I have no doubt 

 that Colonel Hutchinson's plan is capable of execution, if the 

 time and trouble necessary for it were properly remunerated. 

 But we must now proceed to the second fault, which consists 

 in ranging too far from the breaker. This may readily be 

 cured, either by compelling attention to the hand and voice, 

 with the aid of the whip in bad cases ; or by attaching to the 



