64 THE AMATEUR TRAINEE, 
as to the dog; by so doing you still further impress 
obedience, even under adverse circumstances. Pro¬ 
cure a variety of game birds to be practiced on, 
alternating and connecting former exercises. Con¬ 
tinual practice in seeking, finding, and fetching 
“dead bird” on all available game birds, will be of 
great benefit to the dog’s future usefulness, and will 
save much time in practice afield later on. 
THE GUN. 
At this juncture the gun should be introduced/ 
This must be done with the greatest care and 
deliberation. If the dog is courageous and has not 
been frightened through undue noises, etc., it will 
require but little time to accustom him to the report 
of the gun ; but if of timid or nervous disposition, 
it may be of slow progress. A muzzle-loader is best 
for this purpose, but in this age of improvements in 
fire-arms, not always handily in reach of the trainer. 
If a muzzle-loading gun can be procured, proceed 
as follows ; 
Advance within ten steps of kennel (to whicrx 
the dog is chained), handle the gun promiscuously in 
plain sight of the dog; raise and lower the hammers j 
also snap them, if tubes of gun are not to be con¬ 
sidered much; finally begin snapping cccps. It will 
now be seen whether the dog evinces any fear ; if 
so, remain at same distance and continue the snap¬ 
ping of caps. Now set aside the gun, bring out the 
accustomed vessel containing the dog’s feed, step 
