68 
FOREST AND STREAM 
HANDLING THE DOG 
TOO OFTEN IT IS THE MAN AND NOT 
THE ANIMAL NEEDS THE TRAINING 
I T is remarked by quail hunters that the 
dogs they use in their work border hu¬ 
man intelligence closer than any other 
animal, and they cite, what they call, in¬ 
contestable proof in its support. But, when 
the sportsman buys a dog he is the first to 
permit these claims to escape his memory. 
If the dog that he has purchased fails to 
work for him immediately, it is pronounced 
worthless, and the seller condemned for¬ 
ever in his opinion. Irrespective of the 
dog’s timidity or high-strung disposition, 
it must perform from the start for the 
new owner as it did for its former master. 
When the sportsman, however, lends or 
sells a dog he is excessively emphatic in 
accentuating the animal’s traits, and re¬ 
quests that a friendship between the new 
handler and the dog is established prior 
to expressing judgment on field perform¬ 
ance. The dog must have a fair chance 
every way; so the character of the new 
country must be taken into consideration 
as one of the things militating against per¬ 
fect jvork at the beginning. 
Trainers ask this much when returning 
dogs to their patrons—and they seldom get 
it! Then, further, very few sportsmen 
have the same idea of what constitutes a 
broken dog. The majority, and naturally 
so, are biased by the limitations of their 
individual experience. A man may conceive 
a certain dog as a wonder, yet the next 
man would not waste a day’s shooting 
over it. 
With due concession to the predilections 
of any man, it must be thoroughly under¬ 
stood that, though a man can sell an ani¬ 
mal, it is a difficult matter to transfer the 
affections to a new owner. Only two things 
can arrange this, time and the action of 
the individual who acquires the animal. 
If the owner fails in this, he lacks the 
personality that appeals to a dog, and there, 
that instant, he might just as well give 
up the idea of handling dogs. And what 
must his equipment be for handling the 
dog? They must be firmness at the right 
moment, laxity at times when the dog’s 
superintelligence denotes the occasion, and 
an extreme fondness for dogs. 
Some tolerate dogs during their hours 
of accomplishment, but at other times they 
care nothing for their presence and wel¬ 
fare. However much the dog is imbued 
with love for hunting the further the hand 
of friendship between him and master is 
withdrawn in proportion does the dog’s 
work suffer. Absolute devotion to work 
and the innate greatness of many quail 
dogs have dropped a curtain between 
sportsmen and their defects. At least they 
have never been able to correct them! 
Many buy a dog, actuated by the com¬ 
mendable motive of wanting nothing but 
the best. Their own dabblings in dogs 
have been trivial, and they have no con¬ 
ception of what the word class or field trial 
class signifies. What the going qualities 
By Rodney Random. 
of a real field trial dog are has never been 
exhibited to them. They are positive that 
there is an unalterable law that like pro¬ 
duces like; and, through it they are em¬ 
boldened to buy young dogs of field trial 
parentage with class, when their own shoot¬ 
ing and their likings admit alone a slow- 
going, close-ranging animal. 
They send to some noted handler of class 
dogs and demand the most fashionable 
blood lines in the highest class bird dog 
he can send. And this is the natal moment 
of trouble. 
The handler acts according to the re¬ 
quest, and ships the highest class bird-wise 
youngster he has for sale. In time the dog 
arrives, the new owner coops Iiim up in a 
yard for a month or two, with the varia¬ 
tion, possibly, of a run on a city lot. In 
the trainer’s hands, even during the closed 
season, the dog had been accustomed to 
long daily runs where his exercise brought 
him in contact with birds. His blood lines 
continuously impelled him to the accom¬ 
plishment of one thing, hustle out and find 
birds. The control of his actions, as in¬ 
structed by man had been instilled in him, 
but the dictates of his blood momentarily 
overwhelmed it. 
W HEN this man put that youngster in 
the field, and he showed wildness, 
immediately a breach of friendship 
was opened between him and the trainer. 
The buyer was ignorant of how to take 
advantage of the occasion, so the young 
dog played with him. Had he informed the 
trainer of his lack of experience with high 
class dogs, ignorance of what class signi¬ 
fied, and the character of his shooting 
country, he would have obtained just what 
suited him; a slow, plodding, shooting dog. 
This same buyer would have asked for a 
fast trotting roadster, when during all his 
life he had never gotten beyond the slow 
draft horse stage. 
A youngest son of a wealthy manufac¬ 
turer wanted to break in to the sport of 
quail shooting. He had shot a bit at ducks 
and some at the traps; and, now with 
money at his disposal there was no need 
of stinting himself in the matter of the 
price of a pair of dogs. One day he hunted 
over a friend’s dog, and that increased his 
desire to taste more of the pleasures of 
quail shooting. He wrote to a noted South¬ 
ern trainer for a pair of the highest class 
shooting dogs. The trainer knew of a 
pair, bought them, gave them plenty of 
work, and finally shipped them to the pur¬ 
chaser. The trainer received the young 
brewer’s check and apparently the deal was 
closed satisfactorily. 
It was during the month of June that 
the dogs were received by the new owner. 
For a long while they were kept in a small 
brick-floored yard, but as the season finally 
drew near, they were exercised by one of 
the stable hands, by leading them four or 
five miles through the city parks each day. 
In the end autumn came, and the shooting 
season induced the new owner to take them 
afield. They were taken to the country. 
The minute they were freed they went out 
like wild horses, found a covey, pointed 
them for an instant, broke in on them and 
chased. It was a day after before the bolt¬ 
ing dogs were returned. They were found 
in an old abandoned sedge field, somewhat 
exhausted from a protracted self-hunt. 
A few days succeeding this occurrence I 
met the embryo dog handler. He almost 
wept with anger as he recited his experience 
with the dogs. 
“Sure this was some package to get for 
my four hundred dollars 1” he exclaimed 
vociferously, as his china-blue eyes popped 
with wrath. “They ain’t worth two 
dollars!” 
Knowing the trainer by repute, I did not 
think the dogs had had a fair trial. 
“Let me take them to the country for a 
few days, maybe they will come out alright, 
and, if they do we can hunt together for a 
few days over them,” I begged. 
“Sure thing!” he responded, boiling yet 
with wrath as the memory of the way the 
deal appeared to him. “Take them away, 
and, if they don’t do any better for you 
than they did for me, cut their throats! 
They ain’t no good to me.” 
My, but they were a racy-looking pair 
of liver and whites ! Every line of them 
looked the field dog of class. 
'On arriving at the farm one at a time 
was given liberty with my dogs. In this 
way I did not think the good-looking ras¬ 
cals would frame up a self-hunt which 
would extend into days. 
As I expected them, the day I took them 
out they ranged fast and wide, stopped 
spectacularly on a covey of quails, then 
jumped on them, chasing them to the 
woods. There they bolted from me. They 
were quite moderate in their fun, returning 
home after supper, with the same expres¬ 
sion as truant schoolboys. 
Right early in the morning I went afield 
with the dogs, but I rode a horse. The 
moment they made for a long cast I ac¬ 
companied them. They came to a covey, 
pointed as before, then as the pointing dog 
began to break I brought the whip down 
on his back. He steadied immediately and 
so did his pointing companion. For the 
remainder of the day the dogs worked ele¬ 
gantly. They had been well trained as they 
showed by their quick return to form. The 
exhilaration of a day in the field after 
an entire summer’s retirement, was too 
much of a temptation for their action-crav¬ 
ing instincts. 
Some days elapsed. I received a tele¬ 
gram from the owner: “Do the dogs need 
much training? Answer.” 
The answer I sent was: “No.” But I 
had a hard time to control myself from 
adding: “But you do !” 
