The Dog Part 41

280. This accomplishment--and in many places abroad its value is almost inappreciable--can be taught him, if he is under great command, by your occasionally bringing him in to your heel from a point when he is within sight and near you, and again putting him on his point. You will begin your instruction in this accomplishment when the dog is pointing quite close to you. On subsequent occasions, you can gradually increase the distance, until you arrive at such perfection that you can let him be out of sight when you call him. When he is first allowed to be out of your sight, he ought not to be far from you.

281. You may, for a moment, think that what is here recommended contradicts the axiom laid down in 255; but it is there said, that nothing ought to make a dog "_voluntarily_" leave his point. Indeed, the possession of this accomplishment, so far from being productive of any harm, greatly awakens a dog's intelligence, and makes him perceive, more clearly than ever, that the sole object for which he is taken to the field is to obtain shots for the gun that accompanies him. When he is pointing on your side of a thick hedge, it will make him understand why you call him off;--take him down wind, and direct him to jump the fence: he will at once go to the bird, and, on your encouraging him, force it to rise on your side.

282. You will practise this lesson, however, with great caution, and not before his education is nearly completed, lest he imagine that you do not wish him always to remain stanch to his point. Indeed, if you are precipitate, or injudicious, you may make him blink his game.

283. After a little experience, he will very likely some day satisfactorily prove his consciousness of your object, by voluntarily coming out of thick cover to show you where he is, and again going in and resuming his point.

TO HUNT REGULARLY FROM LEEWARD TO WINDWARD WITHOUT THE GUN.

284. In paragraph 147 I observed, that when you are obliged, as occasionally must be the case, to enter a field to windward with your pupil, you ought to go down to the leeward side of it, keeping him close to your heels, before you commence to hunt. After undeviatingly pursuing this plan for some time, you can, before you come quite to the bottom of the field, send him ahead--by the underhand bowler's swing of the right-hand, IV. of 119,--and, when he has reached the bottom, signal to him to hunt to the right--or left. He will be so habituated to work under your eye--130--that you will find it necessary to walk backwards--up the middle of the field,--while instructing him. As he becomes, by degrees, confirmed in this lesson, you can sooner and sooner send him ahead--from your heel--but increase the distances very gradually,--until at length he will be so far perfected, that you may venture to send him down wind to the extremity of the field--before he commences beating,--while you remain quietly at the top awaiting his return, until he shall have hunted the whole ground, as systematically and carefully as if you had accompanied him from the bottom. By this method you will teach him, on his gaining more experience, invariably to run to leeward, and hunt up to windward--crossing and recrossing the wind--whatever part of a field you and he may enter. What a glorious consummation! and it can be attained, but only by great patience and perseverance. The least reflection, however, will show you that you should not attempt it until the dog is perfected in his range.

285. A careful dog, thus practised, will seldom spring birds, however directly he may be running down wind. He will pull up at the faintest indication of a scent, being at all times anxiously on the look-out for the coveted aroma.

286. Not only to the idle or tired sportsman would it be a great benefit to have a field thus beaten, but the keenest and most indefatigable shot would experience its advantages in the cold and windy weather customary in November, when the tameness of partridge-shooting cannot be much complained of; for the birds being then ever ready to take wing, surely the best chance, by fair means, of getting near them would be to intercept them between the dog and yourself.

287. Here the consideration naturally arises, whether dogs could not be _taught_--when hunting in the ordinary manner with the gun in the rear--

TO HEAD RUNNING BIRDS.

Certainly it could be done. There have been many instances of old dogs _spontaneously_ galloping off, and placing themselves on the other side of the covey--which they had pointed--as soon as they perceived that it was on the run,--and by good instruction you could develope or rather excite, that exercise of sagacity.

288. If dogs are taught to "hunt from leeward to windward without the gun," they become habituated to seeing game intercepted between themselves and their masters,--and then their spontaneously heading running birds--though undeniably evincing great intelligence--would not be very remarkable. They would but reverse matters by placing themselves to windward of the birds while the gun was to leeward. This shows that the acquisition of that accomplishment would be a great step towards securing a knowledge of the one we are now considering. Indeed there seems to be a mutual relation between these two refinements in education, for the possession of either would greatly conduce to the attainment of the other.

289. This accomplishment--and hardly any can be considered more useful--is not so difficult to teach an intelligent dog as one might at first imagine; it is but to lift him, and make him act on a larger scale, much in the manner described in 212 and 296. Like, however, everything else in canine education--indeed, in all education--it must be effected gradually; nor should it be commenced before the dog has had a season's steadying, then practise him in heading every wounded bird, and endeavor to make him do so at increased distances. Whenever, also, he comes upon the "heel" of a covey which is to leeward of him--instead of letting him "foot"

it--oblige him to quit the scent and take a circuit--sinking the wind--so as to place himself to leeward of birds. He will thereby _head the covey_, and you will have every reason to hope that after a time his own observation and intellect will show him the advantage of thus intercepting birds and stopping them when they are on the run, whether the manoeuvre places him to leeward or to windward of them.

290. If you could succeed in teaching but one of your dogs thus to take a wide sweep when he is ordered, and head a running covey before it gets to the extremity of the field--while the other dogs remain near you--you would be amply rewarded for months of extra trouble in training, by obtaining shots on days when good sportsmen, with fair average dogs, would hardly pull a trigger. And why should you not? Success would be next to certain if you could as readily place your dog exactly where you wish, as shepherds do their collies. And whose fault will it be if you cannot?

Clearly not your dog's, for he is as capable of receiving instruction as the shepherd's.

291. Manifestly it would be worth while to take great pains to teach this accomplishment, for in all countries it would prove a most killing one when birds become wild; and it would be found particularly useful wherever the red-legged partridge abounds,--which birds you will find do not lie badly when the coveys are, by any means, well headed and completely broken. But there are other accomplishments nearly as useful as those already detailed; the description of them, however, we will reserve for a separate Chapter.

CHAPTER XV.

SETTER TO RETRIEVE. BLOODHOUNDS. RETRIEVERS TO "BEAT." WOUNDED WILD FOWL RETRIEVED FIRST.

SETTER TO RETRIEVE.

292. Undeniably there is some value in the extra number of shots obtained by means of highly-broken dogs; and nearly as undeniable is it that no man, who is not over-rich, will term that teaching superfluous which enables him to secure in one dog the services of two. Now, I take it for granted--as I cannot suppose you are willing to lose many head of killed game--that you would be glad to be always accompanied in the field by a dog that retrieves. Unless you have such a companion, there will be but little chance of your often securing a slightly winged bird in turnips.

Indeed, in all rough shooting, the services of a dog so trained are desirable to prevent many an unfortunate hare and rabbit from getting away to die a painful, lingering death; and yet, if the possession of a large kennel is ever likely to prove half as inconvenient to you as it would to me, you would do well, according to my idea of the matter, to dispense with a regular retriever, provided you have a highly-broken setter who retrieves well.

293. I say setter rather than pointer, not on account of his more affectionate, and perhaps more docile disposition--for certainly he is less liable to sulk under punishment,--but because, thanks to his long coat, he will be able to work in any cover, and that from nature he "roads" quicker.

I must, however, plead _guilty_--for many good sportsmen will think I evince bad taste--to a predilection for setters--meaning always _cautious_ setters--a partiality, perhaps, attributable to having shot more over wild, uncertain ground than in well-stocked preserves. Doubtless, in a very inclosed country, where game is abundant, pointers are preferable, far preferable,--more especially should there be a scarcity of water; but for severe and fast work, and as a servant of all work, there is nothing, I humbly conceive, like the setter. He may be, and generally is, the more difficult to break; but, when success has crowned your efforts, what a n.o.ble, enduring, sociable, attached animal you possess. I greatly, too, admire his long, stealthy, blood-like action,--for I am not speaking of the large heavy sort before which in old days whole coveys used to be netted,--and the animated waving of his stern, so strongly indicative of high breeding; though strange to say, in gracefulness of carriage, the fox, when hunting, and actually on game, far excels him. But we are again getting astray beyond our proper limits; let us keep to the subject of dog-breaking.

294. As it will be your endeavor, during your pupil's first season, to make him thoroughly stanch and steady, I cannot advise you, as a general rule--liable, of course, to many exceptions--one of which is named in 219--to let him retrieve--by retrieve I always mean fetch--until the following year. There is another advantage in the delay. His sagacity will have shown him that the design of every shot is to bag the game--when, therefore, he has once been permitted to pick up a bird, he will be desirous of carrying it immediately to you, and will resist the temptation to loiter with it, mouthing and spoiling it; and however keenly he may have heretofore "sought dead," he will henceforth search with redoubled zeal, from the delight he will experience in being permitted to carry his game. Moreover, the season's shooting, without lifting, will have so thoroughly confirmed him in the "down charge," that the increased[47]

inclination to bolt off in search of a falling bird will be successfully resisted. If he has been taught while young to "fetch"--92, 94, &c.,--he will be so anxious to take the birds to you, that instead of there being any difficulty in teaching him this accomplishment, you will often, during his first season, have to restrain him from lifting when he is "pointing dead." The least encouragement will make him gladly pick up the birds, and give them, as he ought, to no one but yourself.

295. You need hardly be cautioned not to let more than one dog retrieve the same bird. With more dogs than one the bird would, almost to a certainty, be torn; and if a dog once becomes sensible of the enjoyment he would derive in pulling out the feathers of a bird, you will find it difficult to make him deliver it up before he has in some way disfigured it. If you shoot with several dogs that retrieve, be careful always to let the dog who finds the game be the one to bring it. It is but fair that he should be so rewarded, and thus all will be stimulated to hunt with increased diligence.

296. If the dog that found the covey be not able to wind the bird you have shot, make one of the other dogs take a large circuit. The latter may thus, without interfering with the first dog, come upon the bird, should it have run far. Send him in the direction the covey has taken--the chances are great that the bird is travelling towards the same point. By pursuing this plan, obviously there will be much less chance of your losing a bird than if you allow the dogs to keep close together while searching.--See also 98.

297. Do not think that by making your setter lift--after his first season--instead of "pointing dead," there will be any increased risk of his raising unsprung birds. The difference between the scent of dead or wounded game, and that of game perfectly uninjured, is so vast, that no steady, experienced dog will fail to point any fresh bird he may come across whilst seeking for that which is lost.

As a proof of this I may mention that,

298. In North America I once saw, lying on the ground, three snipe, which a pointer, that retrieved, had regularly set one after the other, having found a couple on his way to retrieve the first, and which he afterwards brought in succession to his master, who had all the time governed the dog entirely by signs, never having been obliged to use his voice beyond saying, in a low tone, "Dead," or "Find." I remember, also, hearing of a retrieving setter that on one occasion pointed a fresh bird, still retaining in her mouth the winged partridge which she was carrying,--and of a pointer who did the same when he was bringing a hare; there must, too, be few sportsmen who will not admit that they have found it more difficult to make a dog give up the pursuit of a wounded hare than of one perfectly uninjured. I know of a sportsman's saying he felt certain that the hare his retriever was _coursing_ over the moors must have been struck, although the only person who had fired stoutly maintained that the shot was a regular miss.[48] The owner of the dog, however, averred that this was impossible, as he never could get the discerning animal to follow any kind of unwounded game; and, on the other hand, that no rating would make him quit the pursuit of _injured_ running feather or fur. The retriever's speedy return with puss, conveniently balanced between his jaws, bore satisfactory testimony to the accuracy of both his own and his master's judgment.

299. Some good sportsmen maintain that a retrieving setter--or pointer--on finding a dead bird ought to point it until desired to lift it. This training they hold to be advisable, on the ground that it conduces to the dog's steadiness by diminishing his wish to run forward on seeing a bird fall; but the plan has necessarily this evil consequence, that should the setter, when searching for the dead bird, come across and point, _as he ought_, any fresh game, on your telling him to fetch it--as you naturally will--he must spring it if he attempt to obey you. Surely this would tend more to unsteady him than the habit of lifting his dead birds as soon as found? Your dog and you ought always to work in the greatest harmony--in the mutual confidence of your, at all times, thoroughly understanding each other--and you should carefully avoid the possibility of ever perplexing him by giving him any order it is out of his power to obey, however much he may exert himself. Moreover, if you teach your retrieving setter to "point dead," you at once relinquish--surely unnecessarily?--all hope of ever witnessing such a fine display of sagacity and steadiness as has just been related in the first part of 298.

300. If you object to a setter's being taught to lift on the ground that it will make the other dogs jealous, pray remember that the argument has equal force against the employment of a regular retriever in their presence.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] "Increased:" the gratification of carrying being far greater than that of merely "pointing dead."

[48] I retain this anecdote because every one of the occurrences related has happened to myself. The first many times in the United States; the second once in the United States when my dog Chavee pointed a fresh woodc.o.c.k with a dead bird in his mouth, and a winged bird under his fore paw; the last, many times in England over an old Russian setter, Charm.--H.W.H.

REGULAR RETRIEVER TO BEAT.

301. We all have our prejudices--every Englishman has a right to many. One of mine is to think a _regular_ retriever positively not worth his keep for general shooting _if one of your setting dogs will retrieve well_.

However, if you shoot much in cover, I admit that a regular retriever which can be worked in perfect silence, never refusing to come in when he is merely signalled to, or, if out of sight, softly whistled to, is better[49]--particularly when you employ beaters[50]--but even then he need not be the idle rascal that one generally sees--he might be broken in to hunt close to you, and give you the same service as a mute spaniel. I grant this is somewhat difficult to accomplish, for it much tends to unsteady him, but it can be effected--I have seen it--and, being practicable, it is at least worth trying; for if you succeed, you, as before--292--make one dog perform the work of two; and, besides its evident advantage in thick cover, if he accompany you in your every-day shooting, you will thus obtain, in the course of a season, many a shot which your other dogs, especially in hot weather, would pa.s.s over. If, too, the retriever hunts quite close to you, he can in no way annoy his companions, or interfere with them, for I take it for granted he will be so obedient as to come to "heel" the instant he gets your signal.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Of course, a regular retriever is absolutely necessary when a team of spaniels is hunted, none of which are accustomed to retrieve.

[50] Regular retrievers are never used in America except on the Chesapeake bay for fowl-shooting.--H.W.H.

WATER RETRIEVERS--OR WATER SPANIELS--TO RETRIEVE WOUNDED BEFORE PICKING UP DEAD WILD FOWL.