F O R E S T A N I) S T R E A M 
701 
How Many Sportsmen Have Used a “Reporter” Dog? 
Canine Intelligence is Supposed to be Pretty Well Developed in the Setter and the Pointer But in Sweden There 
are Dogs Wh.ch First Find the Game and Then Come and Tell You About it. 
j WONDER if we have reporters 
in America? What a question! 
Are not our newspaper report¬ 
ers the best and most indefat¬ 
igable in the world? But I do 
not mean the reporting homo; 
it is the reporting canis I am 
wondering about. Do we have 
reporting dogs in America? If so, I have not 
seen them, neither have I heard of them. One 
hear stories about how pointing dogs revolve 
about “the point,” and of the dog’s sticking to it 
like grim death. “He’s so steady on a point 
that you can’t kick him forward on to the bird,” 
says the dog trainer in highest praise of the 
brute he is trying to sell. And we all recol¬ 
lect the story of the crack Western dog, that 
was lost at the close of a day’s shooting. Search 
was made next morning, and the dog was found 
in the brush, close to where he was missed the 
night before, and still pointing the game he 
had come upon as darkness overtook him. So I 
doubt if we have “the reporter” in the Land of 
the True, and perhaps a word about him may 
not be uninteresting to American readers. 
I was out partridge shooting in the south of 
Sweden one fall. I had a sprightly fellow, Jos¬ 
eph, as guide and bearer of cartridges and game, 
and was shooting that day over an old German 
pointer a friend had loaned me, so that I could 
give my own dog a day’s rest. We had enjoyed 
a fairly good day’s sport, and toward evening 
were returning down the valley of the River 
Nissa, toward our headquarters at Oscarstrom. 
We were tired, the shooting was over, and our 
dog was allowed to roam at will. As we saun¬ 
tered along I saw old Lila make her appearance 
over the top of a distant heathery ridge. She 
looked up and down over the valley, and as soon 
as she caught sight of us came toward us in a 
straight line on a brisk gallop, wagging her tail 
in a joyful sort of way. Coming in she raised 
a forepaw, placed it on my leg, looked up in 
my face, wagged her tail briskly, turned about, 
took a dozen leaps back in the track she had 
come, then looked around at me and wagged 
her tail again. 
“Well, what does all this mean?” asked I. 
“Oh, Lila has got a covey of partridges over 
the hill yonder, and has come in with the report,” 
answered Joseph. 
“Nonsense!” 
But Lila rushed on a dozen steps more, looked 
back, and seeing I did not follow her, came in. 
put up her paw and again went through all her 
motions. 
“Well, old girl, lead on 1 ” I said at last, “we’ll 
follow and see what you’ve got, at all events.” 
So over the hill we went, Lila leading and ever 
anon looking back—down across a valley, then 
straight up the further hillside where she 
By an American Observer. 
came to a point at a bunch of bushes. Before I 
got within shot the partridges began to whirr 
up, at least a dozen flew, but old Lila stuck now 
to her point, and on my reaching her side that 
last bird of the covey flew, which I knocked 
over and Lila retrieved. We now hunted along 
the bosky hillside, and Lila pointed and I shot 
six more of this covey, bringing up my bag for 
the day to nineteen partridges and a hare. 
^ ou didn’t know Lila was a reporter?” quoth 
Joseph. 
“No, I did not know before this day that 
there was such a dog in the world.” 
Since then I have made the matter of “the 
reporting dog” the study of some leisure hours. 
The reporter occurs most often among German 
pointers, or in crosses between German and Eng¬ 
lish pointers, but even among them not more 
These Beyond Question Are “Reporter” Dogs, 
but Not the Kind Mentioned in This Article. 
than one trained dog in twenty is a reporter. 
1 he trait is rare among English full bloods, 
and I have never yet seen a setter report. 
It is asserted that a dog cannot be trained to 
report. The reporting instinct must be born 
within him, and tnen he takes to it naturally. I, 
however, am inclined to think that any dog 
that “rings” game, or from any cause breaks 
his point to take up another, may be trained to 
report, by whistling him in, whenever he comes 
to a point, and then advancing with him to the 
quarry. Reporters have different ways of im¬ 
parting their information; not every dog is so 
clear as old Lila. Some come back only till 
they make themselves seen, then return directly 
to the game. Others hop up on a hillock or 
stone and jump and wag their tails till you ap¬ 
proach. 
Here in Sweden a reporter readily sells for 
one-third more than an equally good dog with¬ 
out this faculty, and I can assure American 
sportsmen that the report lends an additional 
pleasure to the chase. 
As the shooting season again approached I 
looked about for a reporter, and at last bought 
a large, powerful pointer, a cross between the 
German and English. 
I shot black cock and capercailzie over Nero, 
and as the season advanced, partridges, but as I 
always kept well up with him never saw him 
report, and had half forgotten that he possessed 
the accomplishment. One day my boot hurt me, 
and leaning my gun against a fence I sat down' 
took off my boot, pulled off my stocking and 
made a general readjustment. As I was lacing 
up my boot in came Nero over a rise of the 
field, and looking up at me turned about and 
came to a half point, then looking up once more 
shot along the track whence he came. Follow¬ 
ing over the hills I came in view of the blue 
waters of Lake Nefode; Nero was still rushing 
on in a straight line over the field. When he 
reached the lake shore he came to a point at a 
tuft of dry rushes. But it was an easy kind of 
a point. Every few moments he looked back at 
me, and expressed his satisfaction at my ap¬ 
proach with one wag of the tail, which in¬ 
stantly stiffened into business again. Reaching 
his side a little flock of seven partridges hus¬ 
tled up, and I had the pleasure of dropping a 
couple, and Nero the satisfaction of retrieving 
them. Since then I let Nero hunt as far and 
wide as he pleases, confident that he will come 
in and report all game he finds out of my sight. 
I frequently whistle him in when he points at 
a distance, and then advance over the field side 
by side with him. Sometimes when Nero points 
at a distance, and is sure that I see him, he will 
lie down, so as not to scare the birds, rising on 
his forepaws now and then and looking back 
at me if I make any unreasonable delay. 
The other day he came to a point far away 
