[92]. When your dog has picked up what you desired, endeavor to make him run to you quickly. Many who teach a dog to fetch, praise and encourage him while he is bringing what he was sent after. Clearly this is an error. It induces the dog to loiter and play with it. He thinks he is lauded for having it in his mouth and carrying it about. Reserve your encomiums and caresses until he has delivered it. If you walk away, the fear of your leaving him will induce him to hurry after you. Let a dog retrieve ever so carelessly, still, while on the move, he will rarely drop a bird.
[93]. Dogs that retrieve should be gradually brought to lift heavy, flexible things, and such as require a large grasp, that they may not be quite unprepared for the weight and size of a hare; otherwise they may be inclined to drag it along by a slight hold of the skin, instead of balancing it across their mouths. Thus capacious jaws are obviously an advantage in retrievers. The French gamekeepers, many of whom are capital hands at making a retriever—excepting that they do not teach the "down charge,"—stuff a hare or rabbit skin with straw, and when the dog has learned to fetch it with eagerness, they progressively increase its weight by burying larger and larger pieces of wood in the middle of the straw: and to add to the difficulty of carrying it, they often throw it to the other side of a hedge or thick copse. If the dog shows any tendency to a hard mouth they mix thorns with the straw.
[94]. I ought to have mentioned sooner that you should commence teaching a puppy to "fetch" by shaking your glove—or anything soft—at him, and encouraging him to seize and drag it from you. Then throw it a yard or two off, gradually increasing the distance, and the moment he delivers it to you, give him something palatable. Should you, contrary to every reasonable expectation, from his having no inclination to romp or play with the glove, not be able to persuade him to pick it up, put it between his teeth—force him to grasp it by tightly pressing his jaws together, speaking all the while impressively to him—scold him if he is obstinate and refuses to take hold of the glove. After a little time retire a few paces, keeping one hand under his mouth—to prevent his dropping the glove,—while you lead or drag him with the other. When you halt, be sure not to take the glove immediately from him—oblige him to continue holding it for at least a minute—lest he should learn to relinquish his grip too soon,—before you make him yield at the command "give;" then bestow a reward. Should he drop it before he is ordered to deliver it, replace it in his mouth and again retreat some steps before ordering him to "give." He will soon follow with it at your heels. If you have sufficient perseverance you can thus make him earn all his daily food. Hunger will soon perfect him in the lesson. Observe that there are four distinct stages in this trick of carrying—the first, making the dog grasp and retain—the second, inducing him to bring, following at your heels—the third, teaching him not to quit his hold when you stop—the fourth, getting him to deliver into your hands on your order. The great advantage of a sporting dog's acquiring this trick is that it accustoms him to deliver into your hands; and it often happens that you must thus teach a dog to "carry" as a preparative to teaching him to "fetch." It certainly will be judicious in you to do so, if the dog is a lively, riotous animal; for the act of carrying the glove—or stick, &c.—quietly at your heels will sober him, and make him less likely to run off with it instead of delivering it when you are teaching him to fetch. As soon as he brings the glove tolerably well, try him with a short stick. You will wish him not to seize the end of it, lest he should learn to "drag" instead of "carry." Therefore fix pegs or wires into holes drilled at right angles to each other at the extremities of the stick. He will then only grasp it near the middle.
[95]. This drill should be further extended if a
REGULAR LAND RETRIEVER
be your pupil. Throw dead birds of any kind for him to bring—of course one at a time,—being on the alert to check him whenever he grips them too severely. If he persists in disfiguring them, pass a few blunted knitting needles through them at right angles to one another. When he fetches with a tender mouth, you will be able to follow up this method of training still further by letting him "road"—or "foot," as it is often termed—a rabbit in high stubble, one—or both, if a strong buck—of whose hind legs you will have previously bandaged in the manner described in [56]. Be careful not to let him see you turn it out, lest he watch your proceedings and endeavor to "hunt by eye." Indeed it might be better to employ another person to turn it out. Keep clear of woods for some time—the cross scents would puzzle him. If by any chance you have a winged pheasant or partridge, let him retrieve it. You will not, I presume, at the commencement select a morning when there is a dry cold wind from the north-east, but probably you will wish to conclude his initiatory lessons on days which you judge to possess least scent. The more he has been practised as described in [39], the better will he work; for he cannot keep his nose too perseveringly close to the ground. With reference to the instructions in that paragraph, I will here remark, that before you let the dog stoop to hunt, you should have placed him by signal ([31]) near the spot from which you had begun dragging the bread. In paragraph [190] an instance is given of the manner in which a dog who retrieves should be put upon a scent; and why that mode is adopted is explained in [184].
[96]. It is quite astonishing how well an old dog that retrieves knows when a bird is struck. He instantly detects any hesitation or uncertainty of movement, and for a length of time will watch its flight with the utmost eagerness, and, steadily keeping his eye on it, will as surely as yourself mark its fall. To induce a young dog to become thus observant, always let him perceive that you watch a wounded bird with great eagerness; his imitative instinct will soon lead him to do the same. This faculty of observation is particularly serviceable in a water retriever. It enables him to swim direct to the crippled bird, and, besides the saving of time, the less he is in the water in severe weather, the less likely is he to suffer from rheumatism.
[97]. As an initiatory lesson in making him observant of the flight and fall of birds, place a few pigeons, or other birds, during his absence, each in a hole covered with a tile. Afterwards come upon these spots apparently unexpectedly, and, kicking away the tiles—or, what is better, dragging them off by a previously adjusted string,—shoot the birds for him to bring; it being clearly understood that he has been previously tutored into having no dread of the gun. As he will have been taught to search where bidden—IV. to VIII. of [119],—nothing now remains but to take him out on a regular campaign, when the fascinating scent of game will infallibly make him search—I do not say deliver—with great eagerness. When once he then touches upon a scent, leave him entirely to himself—not a word, not a sign. Possibly his nose may not be able to follow the bird, but it is certain that yours cannot. Occasionally you may be able to help an old retriever ([296]), but rarely, if ever, a young one. Your interference, nay, probably your mere presence, would so excite him as to make him overrun the scent. Remain, therefore, quietly where you are until he rejoins you.
[98]. When we see a winged pheasant racing off, most of us are too apt to assist a young dog, forgetting that we thereby teach him, instead of devoting his whole attention to work out the scent, to turn to us for aid on occasions when it may be impossible to give it. When a dog is hunting for birds, he should frequently look to the gun for signals, but when he is on them he should trust to nothing but his own scenting faculties.
[99]. If, from a judicious education, a retriever pup has had a delight in "fetching" rapidly, it is not likely he will loiter on the way to mouth his birds; but the fatigue of carrying a hare a considerable distance may, perhaps, induce a young dog to drop it in order to take a moment's rest. There is a risk that when doing so he may be tempted to lick the blood, and, finding it palatable, be led to maul the carcase. You see, therefore, the judiciousness of employing every means in your power to ensure his feeling anxious to deliver quickly, and I know not what plan will answer better—though it sounds sadly unsentimental—than to have some pieces of hard boiled liver[18] at hand to bestow upon him the moment he surrenders his game, until he is thoroughly confirmed in an expeditious delivery. Never give him a piece, however diligently he may have searched, unless he succeeds in bringing. When you leave off these rewards do so gradually. The invariable bestowal of such dainties during, at least, the retriever's first season, will prevent his ever dropping a bird on hearing the report of a gun—as many do—in order to search for the later killed game.