FIRST LESSON IN SEPTEMBER CONCLUDED. BAR.—LEG STRAP.—SPIKE-COLLAR.
[299]. Bar cure for too high spirits. A leg strapped up. Why these remedies are better than starvation and excessive work.—[300]. The regular Spike-Collar described. French Spike-Collar.—[301]. One less objectionable.—[302] to [305]. How, in extreme cases, the Spike-collar might be employed.—[306]. Dog springing Birds without noticing them; how to be treated.—[307]. The first Birds fired at to be killed outright; the Search for winged Birds, Dog being to leeward.—[308]. Had the Dog seized. Firing at running Bird.—[309]. The Search for winged Bird, Dog being to windward.—[310]. “Lifting” a Dog, when recommended. “Footing” a scent. In Note, speed of Red-legged Partridge.—[311]. Evil of a Young Sportsman always thinking his birds killed outright; often calls away Dog improperly.—[312]. Loss of dead bird discouraging to Dog.—[313]. Perseverance in Seeking, how fostered.—[314]. “Nosing” Bird allowed.—[315]. Its advantage instanced in Sir W——m F——n’s dogs.—[316]. Error of picking up winged bird before Loading. In Notes, ingenious Argument in its favour; Bird picked up in the Evening; rejoins Covey.—[317]. If winged bird be a fast runner, and out of shot.—[318]. Dog that was devoted to “seeking dead,” would retrieve Snipe she would not point; probable cause of her fondness for retrieving.—[319]. Dog which kept his paw on winged bird; how taught. “Beppo” in Africa.—[320]. Blenheim, which hated Water, yet would always retrieve Wildfowl.—[321]. If dog rashes forward yet yields to menaces and stops.—[322]. If he seizes the dead bird; if he has torn it.—[323]. How to administer Punishment.—[324]. Part good friends. Your own temper not to be ruffled.—[325]. He is no Breaker who cannot always get hold of Dog.—[326]. Be certain of Dog’s guilt before punishing.—[327]. Dog’s Ears not to be pulled violently.—[328]. To “drop” whenever Bird or Hare rises.—[329]. Lesson in Turnips.—[330]. Real Lesson in “Gone” or “Flown” given after dog has had some experience; reason why.
299. After a few trials you will, I hope, be able to dispense with the peg recommended in [281], and soon after with the checkcord also. But if your dog possesses unusually high spirits, or if he travels over the ground at a pace which obviously precludes his making a proper use of his nose, it may be advisable to fasten to his collar a bar, something like a diminutive splinter-bar, that it may, by occasional knocking against his shins, feelingly admonish him to lessen his stride. If he gets it between his legs and thus finds it no annoyance, attach it to both sides of his collar from points near the extremities. One of his fore-legs might occasionally be passed through the collar; but this plan is not so good as the other; nor as the strap on the hind-leg ([60]). These means (to be discarded, however, as soon as obedience is established) are far better than the temporary ascendancy which some breakers establish by low diet and excessive work, which would only weaken his spirits and his bodily powers, without eradicating his self-will, or improving his intellects. You want to force him, when he is in the highest health and vigour, to learn by experience the advantage of letting his nose dwell longer on a feeble scent.
BAR. FRENCH SPIKE-COLLAR.
300. I have made no mention of the spiked-collar, because it is a brutal instrument, which none but the most ignorant or unthinking would employ. It is a leather collar into which nails, much longer than the thickness of the collar have been driven, with their points projecting inwards. The French spike-collar is nearly as severe. It is formed of a series of wooden balls,—larger than marbles,—linked (about two and a half inches apart) into a chain by stiff wires bent into the form of hooks. The sharp pointed hooks punish cruelly when the checkcord is jerked.
ENGLISH SPIKED-COLLAR.
301. We have, however, a more modern description of collar, which is far less inhuman than either of those I have mentioned, but still I cannot recommend its adoption, unless in extreme cases; for though not so severely, it, likewise, punishes the unfortunate dog, more or less, by the strain of the checkcord he drags along the ground: and it ought to be the great object of a good breaker as little as is possible to fret or worry his pupil, that all his ideas may be engaged in an anxious wish to wind birds. On a leather strap, which has a ring at one end, four wooden balls (of about two inches diameter) are threaded like beads, at intervals from each other and the ring, say, of two inches (the exact distance being dependent on the size of the dog’s throat). Into each of the balls sundry short thickish pieces of wire are driven, leaving about one-sixth of an inch beyond the surface. The other end of the strap (to which the checkcord is attached) is passed through the ring. This ring being of somewhat less diameter than the balls, it is clear, however severely the breaker may pull, he cannot compress the dog’s throat beyond a certain point. The effect of the short spikes is rather to crumple than penetrate the skin.
302. I have long been sensible of the aid a spiked-collar would afford in reclaiming headstrong, badly educated dogs, if it could be used at the moment—and only at the precise moment—when punishment was required; but not until lately did it strike me how the collar could be carried so that the attached cord should not constantly bear upon it, and thereby worry, if not pain the dog. And had I again to deal with an old offender, who incorrigibly crept in after pointing, or obstinately “rushed into dead,” I should feel much disposed to employ a slightly spiked collar in the following manner.
303. That the mere carrying the collar might not annoy the dog, I would extract or flatten the nails fixed on the top of the collar, on the part, I mean, that would lie on the animal’s neck. This collar I would place on his neck, in front of his common light collar. I would then firmly fasten the checkcord, in the usual way, to the spiked-collar; but, to prevent any annoyance from dragging the checkcord, at about five or six inches from the fastening just made I would attach it to the common collar, with very slight twine—twine so slight that, although it would not give way to the usual drag of the checkcord, however long, yet it would readily break on my having to pull strongly against the wilful rush of an obstinate dog, when, of course, the spikes would punish him, as the strain would then be borne by the spiked-collar alone.
304. Guided by circumstances, I would afterwards either remove the spiked-collar, or, if I conceived another bout necessary, refasten the checkcord to the common collar with some of the thin twine, leaving, as before, five or six inches of the checkcord loose between the two collars.