260 RECREATION 
slowly as I draw near. And after that bird 
is flushed and shot he will hunt for it very 
carefully, so not to raise any other without 
first giving me good warning by a steady 
point. 
Dewey has been hunted in the far South 
several winters now, and where they follow 
the dogs on horseback. When thus hunted 
he showed himself much faster, but he still 
retained his carefulness and never ran over 
or flushed a bird. 
And now, having shown that much de- 
pends upon the stock, and upon the dog’s 
individuality, for the development of a first- 
rate quail dog, let me say a word in con- 
clusion about my 
father’s methods of 
training—it is his 
due, since he has 
shown me the devel- 
opment of the best 
quail dog I ever saw 
from a wabbly pup- 
py to the finished 
article. 
Father’s greatest 
aids in training 
Dewey were pa- 
tience and kindli- 
ness; perhaps these 
traits are the more 
pronounced in an 
elderly man. His 
love for a dog is 
overpowering, and 
yet at the same 
time he never for- 
gets that a bird-dog 
is in the field for 
business, and he 
makes a very strong point of giving 
a puppy ample opportunity to romp in the 
field and hunt unrestrained whatever he 
will. He demands above all else that a 
dog be a hard worker, and this giving the 
puppy liberty to hunt in his own way is 
certainly productive of the right spirit. On 
these early trips afield, during the close 
season, my father makes no effort at keeping 
the puppy under control—he only requires 
the youngster to keep within sound of his 
whistle and is more interested, seemingly, 
in watching him unlimber himself than 
anything else. And, of course, he is merely 

as careful as tf he were hunting grouse 
allowing the puppy to develop his speed, 
stamina and hunting qualities. This was 
contrary to my earlier methods, as it is, no 
doubt, to those of the average “dog 
trainer,”’ who believes “ training” to consist 
in keeping the puppy under constant re- 
straint—a procedure which invariably 
results in stunting rather than aiding the 
dog’s development. 
In the course of yard training Dewey, 
father resorted to the check cord only to 
teach the puppy to drop to shot, and to 
respond instantly to the command, ‘‘ Come 
here.’’ He did not use a spike collar, but 
used a simple noose in the rope to get the 
desired result in a 
more humane man- 
ner. The check 
cord was not requir- 
ed in teaching 
Dewey to retrieve 
—force of will and 
an all-powerful 
patience did it. And 
by the time the quail 
season drew near 
the youngster be- 
haved -himself 
amazingly well, 
obeying his master’s 
every command like 
a machine, and 
showing no end of 
ambition. The fin- 
ishing touch could 
not be made till the 
quailseason opened. 
Father took the 
y oungster afield 
where quail were to 
be found when atlast the season opened, and 
the first bird the puppy found hekilledand the 
next,and the next. That ended the training. 
“Get a puppy with hunting instinct bred 
right in him, teach him to be gun-wise and 
to obey promptly and explicitly the com- 
mands, ‘Heel,’ ‘Go on,’ ‘Come here ’ and 
‘Charge,’ and with kindness and patience, 
and good backing, he’ll make a hunter. If 
you teach him to retrieve he will be the 
more valuable. But you cannot teach him 
to find birds, and much less can you get 
him to obey you, if you are unkind to him.” 
So says my father. 

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