GIVING THE DOG A SQUARE DEAL. 

 BY WILLIAM TALLMAN. 



Where are you going to take your shooting" 

 this season? Will you take a trip South for 

 Cfitai.1, and the chance for a crack at wild 

 turkey, or will you spend your vacation where 

 the season opens earlier and is soon over, and 

 try your luck with woodcock and partridge? 



In either case, it is about time to think 

 something of your four-footed companion or 

 companions of the trip. You have, in all 

 probability, the proper outfit ; if not, it is 

 Comparatively an easy thing to decide on, and 

 purchase. But the most important and great- 

 est factor in the enjoyment of the anticipated 

 pleasure is naturally the most difficult to ac- 

 quire. You may have one or more setters or 

 pointers, some of them experienced workers ; 

 they may have been broken on quail in the 

 South, and may be naturally good goers and 

 wide rangers ; but if you should go South 

 with them after a summer and early fall 

 spent at home in idleness, and with even the 

 ordinary feeding and exercise given a dog 

 during the close, season (to say nothing of 

 the fact that they may be exceedingly fat 

 and soft), you may find, after putting in a 

 day or two, that some very common native 

 stock will make your well-bred ones look like 

 "duffers," when it comes to getting out and 

 finding birds. 



It is well worth while, if you expect to en- 

 joy shooting over your own dogs, to send 

 them to some one, if possible, in the sectichi 

 where you intend to shoot, and have them 

 worked out thoroughly before you arrive on 

 the ground. This, to a great many, may be 

 quite impossible, but to those who know of 

 a location and a man they can trust to follow 

 their directions, it will pay to send the dogs 

 to him and get them in proper condition to do 

 their work. If one has no acquaintance in 

 the section he intends to hunt, and has one 

 or a brace of dogs which he expects to enjoy 

 shooting over, it will be well for him to give 

 them a lot of exercise. If he lives in a 

 thickly populated section where there are no 

 fields in which he can run his dogs, it will 

 be absolutely necessary to give them work 

 of some kind. If they will follow a wagon 

 or bicycle, begin by giving them short runs 

 in this way, and increase the work each day. 

 It all depends upon the age and condition of 

 the dog or dogs, and judgment must be used 

 In giving them the work. No hard and fast 



rules can be laid down — the main thing is to 

 remember that when you take a dog from 

 the North, even one that is apparently in 

 good hard condition, it is more than likely 

 that the change of climate will affect him 

 greatly. He may work nicely for the first 

 two or three days and then, especially if he 

 is given a little too much, he will begin to 

 "go off" ; and if he is not rested up, and you 

 continue to work him, he will in all probabil- 

 ity become almost worthless. 



Of course, it makes a lot jof difference 

 whether you care only for the actual shoot- 

 ing, or if the character of the work done by 

 your dog enhances the enjoyment of the 

 sport. _ A good dog that is given a limited 

 time in the field, and not allowed to run 

 after he becomes tired, will, if properly, bro- 

 ken and handled, do his best and most bril- 

 liant work in a heat of about two hours, and 

 for those who care more for the pleasure of 

 seeing high-class work than they do for the 

 actual shooting I would advise fitting the 

 dogs_ for not more than a three-hour run, 

 and in doing so make it a rule to take your 

 dogs up as soon as they begin to tire, or seem 

 to be lacking in ambition or nose. The rule 

 for one who really desires high-class work is, 

 keep your dogs fresh, and never let them run 

 themselves down. The great majority of 

 sportsmen, however, cannot follow this plan, 

 as it would require at least three or four 

 brace of dogs to fill out the time he would 

 want to put in in the field; and even with 

 four brace of dogs a great many sportsmen 

 would soon work their dogs "stale" when 

 looked at from a field trial point of view. 



A happy medium between the "field-trial 

 dog" and the "plug-shooting dog" is what 

 should appeal to the general run of sports- 

 men. The dog that is best qualified for a 

 "field trialer" by nature should make the most 

 satisfactory all-round shooting dog. If he is 

 put down in a country where he can surely 

 find birds in a few minutes, and is taken up 

 as soon as he has made a few points, and be- 

 fore he has lost any of his vim, he will ex- 

 pect the same thing each time, and will put 

 in his best work, and all he can of it, before 

 the hour is up. If, on the other hand, he 

 goes down in the morning with the expecta- 

 tion of doing a day's work, he will soon learn 

 to save himself and take a gait that he can 

 keep up for hours. 



In fitting or conditioning your dogs, it is 



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