AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
189 
your Dog — but there are few sportsmen to be found now, 
who will prohibit a Dog from leaving any moderate sized 
field solus, if they s think he is approaching game. If 
my Dog be properly broken, and I have confidence in his 
staunchness, I would much rather trust his nose and judg- 
ment, than my knowledge; for to attempt to correct a Dog, 
and instruct him according to your notions, when he winds 
the game, and knows better, is only playing the fool with 
him, and being at a loss to comprehend you, he may be in- 
jured, beside spoiling your own sport. Many a covey of 
quails have escaped because the wise sportsman chose to 
make his dog act contrary to his instinct. 
If a Dog is trained well when young, he never will go so far 
from you, but, that a moderate sound may reach his ears, and 
therefore, I condemn the whistle and other noise ; if a Dog 
is broken to either the whistle or many words, he will 
always take the liberty to range as far from you, as these 
sounds can be heard, for, depending on them, he seldom 
looks at his master, and only knows of his error, when he 
can no longer hear them; but, train a Dog to a few words, 
and the waving of your hands, and he will not range too 
far from you, he, depending on your actions for instruction, 
will keep near you, that he may see clearly, and obey the 
direction you wish him to go. There is nothing more un- 
pleasant than to hunt in company with those who are whist- 
ling, flustering, and hallooing at their Dogs : for, setting 
aside the unpleasantness of their noise, it often deranges the 
Dogs, frightens the game, and destroys much sport. 
I most strenuously recommend that aDog should be learned 
to bring the game, although many sportsmen condemn it as 
injurious for several reasons; the first they say is the danger 
of the Dog’s flushing the game, when running for the shot 
bird ; the second is, that after the Dog attains some age, he 
becomes hard mouthed, and mashes the bird; and the other 
reason is, that it causes a scuffle whenever there are several 
Dogs in company. In answer to these reasons, I would re- 
mark, that there is scarcely any habit in a Dog but by pro- 
per treatment may be altered, and it proves only a deficiency 
in training them, if these bad habits are preserved in the Dogs, 
but a Dog may and oyght to be trained, to bring the game 
or drop it, at the master’s pleasure; this can also be done, at 
the time, and by adopting the plan recommended in the 
former part of this treatise. At all events, in a country like 
this which abounds with streams, thickets, and other diffi- 
cult places, the advantages of having a Dog to find and bring 
dead game, will more than counterbalance other inconveni- 
ences. I believe no sportsman, who has a good Dog which 
will do this, thinks the worse, or objects to him on that ac- 
count; and objections to this plan are raised by those who 
have no Dogs of this kind, and are unacquainted with the ad- 
vantages arising from the practice. 
3 B 
One of the most difficult things to break a Dog of, is the 
habit of chasing rabbits, but, as has been before stated, there 
is no practice so deeply rooted in a Dog, but if taken in time 
may be corrected, so this may be reformed also; and in the 
first place a sportsman should never shoot a rabbit in sight 
of his Dog, or carry one in his game bag, as the Dog, in this 
case, very naturally supposes, it is as much the object of your 
pursuit as the quail or partridge; now, if the master will 
never shoot a rabbit in his Dog’s presence, and secondly , 
will severely flog him for the two or three first offences, I 
Will guarantee there will be no difficulty on this score, and no 
necessity to resort to those cruel practices of shooting the 
Dog, and “ thrusting a wire through the cartilaginous part of 
his nose,” and affixing to this a cord, to which must be tied 
a hare, and made to spring about and with a smart application 
of the whip, inflict pain on the dog, while exclaiming “ ware 
hare.” 
Some Dogs after being trained, are so fond of the gun, that 
they will follow any person with a gun who calls them; to 
break them of this is a thing to be much desired ; for, should 
he be a superior Dog, the person who allures him from his 
home will be loth to return him, and is often induced to ap- 
propriate to his own pleasures by using, or profit by selling 
that property which belongs to another. 
To break a Dog of this disposition, I would recommend 
that the owner, get some person, a stranger to the Dog, to pro- 
cure a gun, and entice the animal some considerable distance 
from his home, when he should be seized roughly by the 
neck, and the whip applied with considerable severity, after 
which ordered home; this plan followed once or twice, will 
completely break him of the propensity. 
Dogs should not be permitted to spring on their master 
or any other person with their feet; it is a bad practice, and 
the offender should always be punished for it — and the fol- 
lowing receipt to break them of chasing poultry is select- 
ed. “Respecting poultry, if you find the whip insufficient 
to restrain him, take a cleft stick, to one end of which tie 
a living fowl, and insert the dog’s tail in the cleft at the 
other, and tie it in tight, so as to cause him some pain, 
then give him a few stripes with a whip, and let him run 
off; when he has tired himself, and refuses to run any longer, 
take the stick from his tail, and beat him well about the 
head with the fowl; apply the whip also smartly; after this 
there will be little reason to fear his running at fowls again. 
If a Dog be allowed to kill poultry unpunished, it will 
make him hard-mouthed and apt to break his game; to say 
nothing of the injury he may do to his master or neigh- 
bours.” 
A Dog should always be fed with wholesome food; a 
hearty meal consisting of boiled meat, with some Indian 
bread or mush, and milk. Once a day is sufficient for any 
