highest-bred dogs do not always "back" as well as "stand" as soon as they are taken out, it is better to teach it with the other words of command. It is enforced as follows, and it may be efficiently carried out in kennel, or in the dwelling-house of the master. There is one great advantage attending it—namely, that it encourages a habit of selfcontrol; and I have no doubt that dogs educated in this way are far steadier than others. But to proceed; the dog should have a collar on, to which is attached a cord, held by his master; then throwing down a piece of meat on the ground, he is restrained from it, and the word "Toho" at the same time is uttered in a stern voice by the master. In a short time the cord may be dispensed with occasionally; and if the dog neglects the word "Toho!" put it on again, adding a check-collar if he is at all inclined to be disobedient. The plan should be persevered in until the puppy is so obedient that he can be restrained from approaching his food at all times without the cord; but he should not be so cowed as to slink away, the object being to make him stop, but not leave the position in which he was when the word "Toho" was uttered. Hence the punishment must not be severe, and there must be no more fear felt than is sufficient to procure obedience.

As soon as these several habits are instilled, and the dog readily obeys the seven words of command, he may be taken out and shown game, and if well bred he will be readily broken. Colonel Hutchinson advocates a much more complicated preparatory education than this; and, among other things, he raises the right arm to the dog to enforce "Toho!" and the left to compel him "down." He also finds that he can educate a puppy to hunt high, by making him understand the word "Up," by means of food placed in a high situation indoors; but I confess that I cannot see the use of such complicated means to enforce comparatively simple ends. Consider the time that must be employed in teaching the difference between the right hand and the left; for even the hayband which is said to be necessary to the raw recruit to enable him to distinguish his right leg from his left would here fail to be of any assistance. I fully admit that a clever dog may be taught any of the arts recommended by Colonel

Hutchinson, but at the same time I contend that one quarter of the time spent in teaching any one of them would suffice to inculcate the subsequent performance to which this one was meant to be preparatory. If, then, this is true, the plan fails altogether; but nothing short of actual experience can demonstrate the truth or fallacy of his directions. I have never yet heard of his more minute instructions being carried out by any practical man; and as I know that the dog may be rendered perfectly complete in his education. without them, I must continue to think that they are unnecessary, until I am shown to the contrary. I am quite satisfied, that if the seven points which I have described are carefully instilled before taking a dog into the field to show him game, there will be very little to do when there; the only respect in which no preparatory teaching will be of any service being in the method of beating his ground, which will be alluded to in the next stage.

BREAKING AT PAIRING TIME WITHOUT THE GUN.

In the month of March and early in April, partridges and grouse have paired, and are so tame, that they will lie like stones. At this time, also, the wheat is high enough to conceal them, while the weather being cool and the ground damp, the scent is so good as to enable the dog to find his game without difficulty. This, therefore, is the time to be chosen for commencing the education in the field of the pointer and setter. Premising that the pupil is under good command, and that he will readily carry out the seven orders which are specified under the article on Preparatory Education, the next points to be taught are—

1st. The range; that is, the method of beating the ground so as to avoid missing game.

2nd. The point; that is, the art of standing steadily the moment that the scent of game is felt with certainty.

3rd. To back; in which the dog stops in a more or less excited attitude the moment he sees another dog point or back.

4th. To draw; that is, when he feels a scent, but is uncertain about it, or is led to believe that game is moving

away, to approach in such a careful manner as to lead the sportsman in the right direction without disturbing the game.

Besides these four chief points which are now to be taught, the seven preliminary lessons will also have to be repeated day by day and hour by hour. If they have been neglected, they must be taught at the same time; but the task is thereby increased tenfold, and dogs which are not obedient to nearly all these words of command before they are shown game, rarely become steady at any subsequent period. It is a disputed point whether puppies should be broken to game at all without the gun, and Colonel Hutchinson decides in favour of postponing the education in this department till the autumn. He says:

"I cannot believe it is the best way to attain great excellence, though the plan has many followers; it does not cultivate the intelligence of his" (the keeper's) "pupils, nor enlarge their ideas by making them sensible of the object for which such pains are taken in hunting them. Moreover, their natural ardour (a feeling that it should be his aim rather to increase than weaken) is more or less damped by having often to stand at game before they can be rewarded for their exertions by having it killed to them; it prevents rather than imparts the zeal and perseverance for which Irish dogs are so remarkable. Particularly ought a breaker whose pupil is of a nervous temperament, or of too gentle a disposition, to consider well that the want of all recompence for finding paired birds must make a timid dog far more likely to become a blinker' when he is checked for not pointing them, than when he is checked for not pointing birds which his own impetuosity alone deprives him of every chance of impetuously 'touseling.' The very fact that the birds lie will frequently lead to mischief; for if the instructor be not very watchful, there is a fear that his youngsters may succeed in getting too close to their game before he forces them to come to a stand point."

Now, this is all very pretty in theory, but practically I believe it to be utterly fallacious. In the first place, the chief difficulty always is in getting the dog to begin to point; for after he has once shown the disposition, the subsequent progress is a matter of patience and firmness on the part of

the breaker. Then granting this, how can the dog be benefited up to this time by the killing of game to his point, when he has not yet arrived at that stage? No one would attempt to work dogs unnecessarily at pairing time, but I do contend that a great deal may be done then far better than can be effected in September, and that if the breaking is put off altogether till that month, nearly the whole season will be wasted in "making" the dog. On the other hand, I have had dogs which, in the previous spring, had been made as perfect as possible without the gun, and which only required one day, or at the utmost two, in September, to complete them. I do not mean to say that subsequent experience did not improve them, but I assert that they were on the third of the month very much more steady and trustworthy than any dog I ever saw at the end of September, whose education had been deferred till the first of that month. There is another reason why spring teaching is to be preferred to autumn: the keeper or master has then no other object, and his temper is not liable to be ruffled by want of success in finding game or in killing it. He is not tempted to sacrifice his dogs to his "bag," or to blame them for faults for which he or his friends are really responsible. Again, there are few days in September when the scent is good; either the ground is dry and the air hot, or rain has recently fallen, and the steam produced by it interferes with the scent. Such a state of things as is likely to exist in this month demands the experience and caution of the old dog, rather than that of the untried puppy; and even if the young dog has been well drilled in the spring, and has come out with flying colours then, he will often have enough to do to make out his game. There are other reasons against following the colonel's advice, not the least of which is that the dog is rendered useless for the whole of one season; for no one can do much during that period with an animal which has never seen game till its commencement. I am an advocate for every sportsman breaking his own dogs, but I should certainly not recommend his doing so to the loss of his sport, and yet this must be the result if the practice which I am now disputing is adopted. For these several reasons, therefore, I protest against the postponement till the autumn of what may well be done in the spring. It is quite true that a dog steady

enough then will become so excited when he sees game killed, that he will run riot for a short time; but he knows what is right, and it is only necessary to correct his faults. There is little to be instilled into him, which is the most difficult part of all education, and after an hour's work he will settle down into a useful assistant.

The RANGE is the first of these four acts of education, and it is at once the most easy to teach to a certain extent, and the most difficult to teach fully. Almost any dog with good breeding, and unspoilt by confinement or the whip, will start off and keep galloping about in a meaningless manner; and this is sometimes called "beating;" but it is very wide of what is meant by the real sportsman when he says that his dog beats his ground in a proper way. Ranging should be so carried out that every portion of the field or moor is crossed by the dog nearly at right angles to the wind, and at the smallest possible distance from the shooter consistent with the act itself. The dog has already been taught to run forward at the words "Hie on" or "Hold up," but he must now be shown how to proceed in the best manner to find his game. Some dogs, from not being thus taught, are apt to run straight into the middle of the field, and when they find a covey there, as they often do, it is supposed to be by a kind of special instinct. But if the sportsman desires that his ground, either in a manor or on a moor, should be thoroughly and effectively beaten, he will direct his dog to begin to leeward, and then crossing from side to side nearly at right angles with the wind, but with a slight tendency forwards, the ground is ultimately all crossed and re-crossed with intervals of from fifty to a hundred yards, according to circumstances. In doing this, the wind blows the scent of the game sideways on the dog, and a good one will always be observed to carry his head obliquely in the wind's eye, as he crosses his ground; but the angle is in any case such that the scent is perceived just as well as if it was blown directly in front of him. If the dog is shy, he will perhaps refuse to beat, and then an older companion must be made to show him the way, which most puppies have enough of the faculty of imitation to be led to follow. Then for a time let both start off, the young one playing around his older leader, and without any idea of what