THE HUNTING DOG 



"BLINKING." 



BY W. B. TALLMAN. 



Of all the problems which confront a man 

 in the field, the question of dealing with and 

 curing a "'blinker" requires the most careful 

 consideration and delicate handling. Flush- 

 ing, false pointing, shot breaking, etc., are 

 vices which, comparatively speaking, lie close 

 to the surface, and may be remedied with an 

 ordinary amount of care and good judgment ; 

 but the fact that the causes of blinking lie 

 far beneath the surface, demands that the 

 breaker become intimately acquainted with 

 every phase of his dog's disposition and char- 

 acter before he may hope to be rid of this 

 most disagreeable fault. 



Generally speaking, a "blinker" is a dog 

 which is bird shy, but there are so many 

 different kinds of blinking that to any one 

 who has had experience with them the term 

 "bird shy" falls very short of the mark. A 

 bad "blinker" is more crazy than shy. In 

 fact, the form of blinking which is purely 

 shyness is comparatively simple and easy to 

 deal with. This most common form often 

 develops in puppies during their first ex- 

 perience on birds. A puppy may be full of 

 ambition, hunt and point, and show no trace 

 of timidity, but after he has been down an 

 hour or so and found nothing and is a bit 

 tired, let him run into the midst of a large 

 covey, with birds whirring up on all sides of 

 him, or work through a piece of woods with 

 singles flushing wild from the dry leaves or 

 tree tops to the tune of a fusillade of shots, 

 and you have a "blinker" on your hands be- 

 fore you know it. At first he may hold hi_s 

 point until the bird flushes and then turn 

 tail and come to heel — his next point may be- 

 abandoned when he hears you stepping up to 

 flush, the next — when he thinks you are com- 

 ing, and, finally, unless checked, he will de- 

 sert his points as fast as he makes them, 

 and unless he is in sight all the time you 

 may not find many coveys. In this sort of 

 thing, an ounce of prevention is worth a 

 pound of cure. In the first place, puppies 

 should not be hunted long enough to get tired. 

 Do not let them get stale, and their nerves 

 will stand considerable excitement that might 

 ruin them otherwise. In the second place, 

 don't try to kill too many birds over your 

 puppies. Avoid snap shots at wildly flush- 

 ing birds. If the birds are jumping in all 

 directions and you see your puppy flinch at 

 the sound of their wings, take him up. If 

 the first signs appear when he points, the 



sound of your voice may steady him, but if 

 he returns to heel and refuses to go back to 

 his point at command, you are confronted 

 with the urgent necessity of understanding 

 the dog with which you have to deal. For 

 while one might take courage by your paying 

 no attention to him, but going on and flush- 

 ing the birds yourself, another may require 

 you to at once lay aside your gun and coax 

 him to the birds, giving him plenty of time, 

 and all the encouragement possible when 

 they flush. Gain the dog's confidence and 

 give him a little careful work on singles. 

 Above all things, in cases of this kind, avoid 

 all punishment when working on birds. It is 

 very important that the puppy should con- 

 nect no idea of physical suffering with the 

 finding of the birds. It is partly for this 

 reason that I prefer not to work another dog 

 with a timid puppy. It may be absolutely 

 necessary to punish the other dog, and that 

 is apt to frighten the pup and add to his dis- 

 gust of the whole affair. 



The second form of blinking is hardly dis- 

 tinguishable from the first, except that there 

 is less shyness and more of a nervous dread. 

 In some cases it is merely an advanced stage 

 of the first form, and in others it crops out 

 most unexpectedly and the cause is very 

 hard to find. The dog will sometimes, after 

 being compelled to hold a point longer than 

 usual, back off from the birds, seeming to 

 relieve the strain on his nerves, and then 

 creep up and resume a rigid point ; or he may 

 quit his point and circle the birds. (This 

 trick is a not uncommon form of blinking, 

 and is often overlooked.) Again, he may 

 wriggle away from his point, and rush back 

 and forth from one side to the other, half 

 circling his birds and refusing absolutely to 

 be still until the birds are flushed. He then 

 shows no signs of fear or timidity, but to the 

 contrary may be very ready to break shot 

 and chase. These "blinkers" develop a great 

 variety of tricks, each according to his_ in- 

 dividual character. Some are purely tricky 

 or playful, others wildly insane, and some, 

 for want of a better term, I must call hys- 

 terical. There can be no rule set^ down for 

 the treatment of such cases^for it is simply a 

 matter of treating each individual some- 

 what as you would treat a man who per- 

 sisted in making a fool of himself. If he is 

 worth bothering with, study his case and all 

 the symptoms carefully. Overcome that part 

 of the trouble which may be due to timidity, 

 and when it is merely a matter of trickery, 



275 



