BREAKING A BIRD DOG 
32 
were any criterion! She heeded the shot 
not at all. So far, so good—but we must go 
further. It was necessary that she soon 
come to understand what a gun is for . 
A couple of days after the first test just 
mentioned I took Byrd out to Ray Vance’s 
farm along the Miami River, where there are 
plenty of birds. We flushed a most wonder¬ 
ful covey that day, I remember, and I was 
more than usually downhearted that my 
little bitch had not yet conceived the idea of 
absolute steadiness on point, for which ful¬ 
fillment of my desires I so earnestly prayed 
because I wanted to have her ready to shoot 
over when the season opened. As a matter 
of fact, I might better have given my atten¬ 
tion to other worries—for the big thing is to 
get a dog to go out . You can always stop 
them up when they’re really ready for it; 
but to give them the urge to go out boldly 
and stay out is the most ticklish phase of 
training, especially if you have them under 
perfect control all the while—yet the thrill 
of watching a fast, wide-going dog is the 
purest poetry of pleasure that it is possible 
for a field dog to give. 
