CHAPTER II.
INITIATORY LESSONS WITHIN DOORS. SHOOTING PONIES.
[14]. One Instructor better than two.—[15]. Age at which Education commences.—In-door breaking for hours, better than Out-door for weeks.—[16]. To obey all necessary Words of Command and all Signals before shown Game.—[17]. Unreasonableness of not always giving Initiatory Lessons—leads to Punishment—thence to Blinking.—[18]. Dog to be your constant Companion, not another’s.—[19], [21], [22]. Instruct when alone with him. Initiatory Lessons in his Whistle—in “Dead”—“Toho”—“On”—[20]. All Commands and Whistling to be given in a low Tone.—[23] to [26]. Lessons in “Drop”—Head between fore-legs—Setters crouch more than Pointers.—[24]. Slovenly to employ right arm both for “Drop” and “Toho.”—[27]. Lessons in “Down charge”—Taught at Pigeon-match—Rewards taken from Hand.—[28]. Cavalry Horses fed at discharge of Pistol—Same plan pursued with Dogs.—[29]. Dog unusually timid to be coupled to another.—[30]. Lessons at Feeding Time, with Checkcords.—[31]. Obedience of Hounds contrasted with that of most Pointers and Setters.—[32]. Shooting Ponies—how broken in.—[33]. Horse’s rushing at his Fences cured—Pony anchored.
14. It is seldom of any advantage to a dog to have more than one instructor. The methods of teaching may be the same; but there will be a difference in the tone of voice and in the manner, that will more or less puzzle the learner, and retard rather than advance his education. If, therefore, you resolve to break in your dog, do it entirely yourself: let no one interfere with you.
15. As a general rule, let his education begin when he is about six or seven months old,[4] (although I allow that some dogs are more precocious than others, and bitches always more forward than dogs,) but it ought to be nearly completed before he is shown a bird ([132)]. A quarter of an hour’s daily in-door training—called by the Germans “house-breaking”—for three or four weeks will effect more than a month’s constant hunting without preliminary tuition.
USE OF INITIATORY LESSONS.
16. Never take your young dog out of doors for instruction, until he has learned to know and obey the several words of command which you intend to give him in the field, and is well acquainted with all the signs which you will have occasion to make to him with your arms. These are what may be called the initiatory lessons.
17. Think a moment, and you will see the importance of this preliminary instruction, though rarely imparted. Why should it be imagined, that at the precise moment when a young dog is enraptured with the first sniff of game, he is, by some mysterious unaccountable instinct, to understand the meaning of the word “Toho?” Why should he not conceive it to be a word of encouragement to rush in upon the game, as he probably longs to do; especially if it should be a partridge fluttering before him, in the sagacious endeavour to lure him from her brood, or a hare enticingly cantering off from under his nose? There are breakers who would correct him for not intuitively comprehending and obeying the “Toho,” roared out with stentorian lungs; though, it is obvious, the youngster, from having had no previous instruction, could have no better reason for understanding its import, than the watch-dog chained up in yonder farm-yard. Again he hears the word “Toho”—again followed by another licking, accompanied perhaps by the long lecture, “’Ware springing birds, will you?” The word “Toho” then begins to assume a most awful character; he naturally connects it with the finding of game, and not understanding a syllable of the lecture, lest he should a third time hear it, and get a third drubbing, he judges it most prudent, (unless he is a dog of very high courage) when next aware of the presence of birds, to come in to heel; and thus he commences to be a blinker, thanks to the sagacity and intelligence of his tutor. I do not speak of all professional dog-breakers, far from it. Many are fully sensible that comprehension of orders must necessarily precede all but accidental obedience. I am only thinking of some whom it has been my misfortune to see, and who have many a time made my blood boil at their brutal usage of a fine high-couraged young dog. Men who had a strong arm and hard heart to punish,—but no temper and no head to instruct.
DOG YOUR COMPANION.
18. So long as you are a bachelor, you can make a companion of your dog, without incurring the danger of his being spoiled by your wife and children; (the more, by-the-bye, he is your own companion and no other person’s the better) and it is a fact, though you may smile at the assertion, that all the initiatory lessons can be, and can best be, inculcated in your own breakfast-room.