THE FLAT-COATED RETRIEVER 
difficulty, but by this time the other winged bird had, unseen by her, 
crossed to the other side and dived under the ice fringing the far shore. 
I told her to go over, and, although heavily buffeted by the blocks of ice, 
she crossed over, being carried down stream some forty or fifty yards; 
she then ran out on to the bank, shook herself and looked to me for orders. 
I waved her along until she was opposite to and beyond where the duck had 
disappeared under the ice; she kept her eyes fixed on me, clearly puzzled, 
and I was in doubt what to do; I bent down and beckoned her towards me, 
and when she had reached the spot on the ice near where I had last seen 
the duck, I shouted out, “ Seek.” She got her nose down at once, got into 
the water, dived under the thin ice which she broke, and pulled out the 
duck. I once sent this bitch six times into the river in quick succession 
in the same wintry conditions and there was never a sign of having 
had enough; these are only a couple of instances out of many which I 
could quote. 
I readily admit that the flat -coated retriever is not so suitably endowed 
by Nature for water work as the Labrador or the curly-coated varieties, 
being longer in coat and consequently taking longer to dry; for this 
reason they require more care when they come in after a hard day in the 
water; but who minds a bit of hard work in drying and making comfort- 
able a dog which has worked well that day ? Personally I do not feel 
happy until I have seen my dog thoroughly dry and well groomed. If 
you see to this yourself, and insist on legs and feet being daily examined 
after work, there will not be many days in the season when you have to 
leave your dog at home. I have often thought that some handlers fail to give 
their dogs sufficient scope. Naturally too much liberty cannot be allowed 
to a young dog, but towards the end of the second season dogs should 
be absolutely steady even in the most trying conditions, and it is time 
to allow them to think for themselves. Busy men who can only get away 
for the week-end and big days, have no time to teach their dogs, and for 
improvement in their work and general intelligence one must look to the 
small days. Flat -coated retrievers are more than machines, and, in 
addition to big driving days and ordinary water work, can be used as 
spaniels, also as stops and in a variety of other ways. Their setter blood 
frequently prompts them to set game which may be skulking near them, 
and which without their aid would have been walked over; this trait should 
be encouraged, as it results in a large addition to the bag during a small 
day; absolute steadiness should, of course, be insisted on both before and 
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