ioo BREAKING A BIRD DOG 
much his fun as yours. Never sneer at him. If he 
doesn’t understand you, and so does a thing wrongly, 
don’t make him feel that he is a fool. 
Never lie to an animal. Never fail to carry out 
your threats or your promises. There, again, you 
have a fundamental principle of human psychology. 
You cannot control an animal if he does not believe 
in you. Strongheart will do anything I tell him to 
because I never have betrayed his faith in me. Some¬ 
times he will hesitate and look up at me, as if to 
say, “Did I understand you? Do you really mean 
what I thought you said?” When I repeat the 
command he seems to say, “Oh, you did mean it! 
That’s all right. I just wanted to be sure.” 
Never teach an animal to depend on graft. I 
don’t bribe an animal to do a thing. I don’t give 
Strongheart a reward for carrying out a command; 
not a material reward, such as food. He does it 
solely because he wants my approval. He will look 
up at me questioningly, as if he said, “Was that what 
you wanted? Did I do it right?” If I smile and 
look pleased he fairly quivers with pleasure. 
Of course you can get a kind of service out of 
either animals or human beings by bribing them—if 
you care for that kind of service. I don’t! It isn’t 
really good service, anyway. Strongheart will do 
more, just to please me, than I ever saw a dog do in 
order to get food. It is just the same with human 
