xviii INTRODUCTION 
do not expect too much you are less apt to be 
disappointed. 
This book is not intended as the last word 
in training—but it does tell the story pretty 
thoroughly of how I broke my Irish setter, 
Smada Byrd, and points the way, I hope, for 
others to follow, basing their methods upon 
individual requirements as they develop and 
under general theories which I advance and 
believe are fundamentally sound. I am a 
great advocate of natural processes. 
Thus the subject of breaking a bird dog is 
approached and handled in this book from a 
different angle and on a different basis from 
any similar book on the market. Otherwise 
it would have no excuse for being written. 
In that it is not merely a collection of ab¬ 
stract theories—but a running report of 
actual lessons and gradual progress—this 
book is undoubtedly unique among works of 
its kind. In reality it is merely a bird dog 
biography, with the story confined to the 
period of Smada Byrd’s training and early 
development. Yet long practice has proved 
that the theories are fundamentally sound, 
and that they lose nothing from the lack of a 
more technical treatment. 
