178 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April, 1920 
CHOOSING AND TRAINING A PUPPY 
IF YOU HAVE THE TIME AND THE PLACE AND WANT A REAL FIELD COM- 
PANION PURCHASE A PUPPY OF GOOD BLOOD AND TRAIN HIM YOURSELF 
W E believe it an erroneous idea, prev- 
alent among sportsmen who use 
their dogs both as household and 
field companions, and who shoot over 
them, bagging grouse, cock, snipe and 
quail, that Field Trial blood cannot be 
made into such a performer. We know 
men who will argue that the high-strung, 
fast going class dog is not the dog from 
whose progeny we should look for a pleas- 
ant shooting dog in cover and open. 
But this is not so. The writer has 
shot over many dogs, for many years, 
and the greatest grouse and woodcock 
dog he ever knew was a direct descendent 
of the greatest Field Trial performer of 
all history. Such a dog, under perfect 
control, hunting the woodcock covers and 
the grouse runs of old New England 
would open the eyes of the advocate of 
the cold blooded variety. We know that 
it is given to but few men to follow the 
Field Trials as a sport. We know that 
most men derive their pleasure from the 
dog by either breeding and training a 
shooting dog or by the purchase of one 
already broken and using him as a com- 
panion in the field when gunning and in 
the home as a pal. If you have the 
place and the time, purchase a puppy and 
do the training yourself. Buy a puppy 
from the best bred and best known stock 
of the day; get a good, strong, healthy 
pup, one whose sire and dam were win- 
ners of many a hard fought for stake 
in which the reading of the performance 
and the blood lines show their success 
was due largely to brains. 
B UY such a puppy at as early an age 
as possible. Take it home and lib- 
erate it behind the kitchen stove. Let 
the cook and the family stumble over it; 
allow it to eat with the cat and chase 
chickens. Let it dispute the possession 
of the milk and food pan with them. Feed 
it table scraps and buttermilk. Give it 
plenty of bone building food, and when 
you are ready to begin its field training 
you will have some pup — not a weak- 
minded, gun-shy degenerate, but a brainy, 
bold, world-wise, high class individual 
that only needs the opportunity on birds 
and a guiding hand to develop into a 
thoroughbred companion, keen, affection- 
ate and field wise, combining brains, 
breeding, ambition and good looks. That’s 
how we go about it. Brains will show in 
the formation of the puppy’s head — the 
By EDWARD RUSSELL WILBUR 
Starting the game together 
eyes, expression and the more ancestors 
in the pedigree we find of the brainy 
type the better the puppy will suit us. 
We have seen puppies whose expression- 
less faces reminded us of a dying blue- 
fish and whose rat-headed brain store- 
house never would have repaid an hour’s 
hard work. The puppy should have life 
and ambition. Indeed, we care not how 
high strung he is, for although he may 
not submit to restraint as readily as 
his sleepy brother, when once he is yours 
to command he will well repay in the 
better work and the way it is done. Good 
looks, color and coat are desirable, but 
first the pup. Performance comes before 
good looks. Begin his training at from 
6 to 8 weeks old. The writer had two 
Strideaway pointers, brother and sister, 
that at 6 months pointed, backed and re- 
tiieved quail in the stubble fields of 
Georgia and any one, knowing the high 
strung Strideaway blood, can imagine 
the class of this pair of babies. Name 
the pup at once. Call him by name and 
determine as quickly as possible whether 
the puppy you have selected has the class 
and brains you are looking for. If you 
have made a mistake, bury him deep 
where the grapevines grow and try again. 
N OTHING repays the effort or the 
money expended as does the per- 
fected, high class shooting dog. He 
can be bought already for the field but 
to my mind the choosing of a high class 
puppy and having him educated along 
the lines of one’s own ideas, or, better 
still, carrying on the education oneself 
produces the dog that finds a place in the 
family album and one whose praise is 
sung when the step grows feeble, the 
hair gray and the hunting days are spent 
by the log fire and one goes over and over 
again, perhaps adding trifles to, that 
great dog’s performances afield. It goes 
without saying, and no one can dispute 
the fact, that the better material you use 
to build with, the better the building 
will be. 
The country is full of dogs that are be- 
ing used by sportsmen as broken field 
performers which really are not worth a 
daily feed. These dogs are produced 
from the culls of the kennels — the dis- 
cards, and just “happen so” dogs, of bad 
breeding. When you select a high class 
puppy — full of point, hunt and ambition 
coupled with brains, your work is half 
done. Such a puppy is eager to learn, 
anticipating your command. The most 
wonderful exhibition of how a high class 
dog can be made to perform was shown 
by a lady’s English setter, a wonderfully 
beautiful specimen — high strung, full of 
class and ambition — a dog that required 
the best of handling, yet who hunted, re- 
trieved and, in fact,- was almost human 
about his work — a perfected product of 
the highest type of setter breeding. This 
dog would pick up ordinary pins from the 
carpet, retrieve eggs, little chickens, in 
fact did anything he was asked to and 
did, it instantly, cheerfully, and with a 
nervous energy that made his work a 
pleasure to witness. 
THE JUDGE AND HIS WORK 
YV7HEN the Field Trial Club puts a 
Y» judge up on a horse to follow the 
dogs, or a Bench Show Committee invites 
one into the ring to pass out the ribbons, 
it is presumed that the selection is made 
from men who thoroughly know the game 
- — at least this should be done to insure 
satisfaction to the entries and for the 
good of the game. From a Field Trial 
standpoint there are at present possibly a 
dozen men perfectly qualified to judge 
correctly and these men have been and are 
judging continuously. But what is being 
done to make new judges? Because a man 
has owned a setter some time in his 
career or because he has broken into 
print along the lines of breeding and 
