INITIATORY LESSONS WITHIN DOORS. SHOOTING PONIES.
13. 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.
14. 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 (111). 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.
15. Never take your young dog out of doors for instruction, until he has
learnt 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.
16. 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 is a partridge fluttering before him, in the sagacious
endeavor 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 the adjacent 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.
17. So long as you are a bachelor, you can make a companion of your dog,
without incurring the danger of his being spoilt by your wife and
children; the more, by-the-bye, he is your own companion and nobody else'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.
18. Follow Astley's plan. Let no one be present to distract the dog's
attention. Call him to you by the whistle you propose always using in the
field. Tie a slight cord a few yards long to his collar. Throw him a small
piece of toast or meat, saying at the time, "Dead, dead." Do this several
times, chucking it into different parts of the room, and let him eat what
he finds. Then throw a piece, always as you do so saying, "Dead," and the
moment he gets close to it, check him by jerking the cord, at the same
time saying, "Toho," and lifting up your right arm almost perpendicularly.
By pressing on the cord with your foot, you can restrain him as long as
you please. Do not let him take what you have thrown until you give him
the encouraging word, "On," accompanied by a forward movement of the right
arm and hand, somewhat similar to the swing of an under-hand bowler at
cricket.
19. Let all your commands be given in a low voice. Consider that in the
field, where you are anxious not to alarm the birds unnecessarily, your
words must reach your dogs' ears more or less softened by distance, and,
if their influence depends on loudness, they will have the least effect
at the very moment when you wish them to have the most. For the same
reason, in the initiatory lessons, be careful not to whistle loudly.
20. After a few trials with the checkcord, you will find yourself enabled,
without touching it, and merely by using the word "Toho," to prevent his
seizing the toast or meat, until you say "On," or give him the forward
signal. When he gets yet more perfect in his lesson, raising your right
arm only, without employing your voice, will be sufficient, especially if
you have gradually accustomed him to hear you speak less and less loudly.
If he draw towards the bread before he has obtained leave, jerk the cord,
and _drag him back to the spot from which he stirred_. He is not to quit
it until you order him, occupy yourself as you may. Move about, and
occasionally go from him, as far as you can, before you give the command
"On." This will make him less unwilling hereafter to continue steady at
his point while you are taking a circuit to head him, and so get wild
birds between him and your gun,--179, 196. The signal for his advancing,
when you are facing him, is the "beckon"--see 33.
21. At odd times let him take the bread the moment you throw it, that his
eagerness to rush forward to seize it may be continued, only to be
instantly restrained at your command.
22. Your _left_ arm raised perpendicularly, in a similar manner, should
make the young dog lie down. Call out "Drop," when so holding up the left
hand, and press him down with the other until he assumes a crouching
position. If you study beauty of attitude, his fore-legs should be
extended and his head rest between them. Make him lie well down,
occasionally walking round and round him, gradually increasing the size of
the circle--your eyes on his. Do not let him raise himself to a sitting
posture. If you do, he will have the greater inclination hereafter to move
about: _especially when you want to catch him in order to chide or correct
him_. A stop is all you require for the "Toho," and you would prefer his
standing to his point, rather than his lying down,[5] as you then would
run less risk of losing sight of him in cover, heather, or high turnips,
&c. Setters, however, naturally crouch so much more than Pointers, that
you will often not be able to prevent their "falling" when they are close
to game. Indeed, I have heard some sportsmen argue in favor of a dog's
dropping, "that it rested him." An advantage, in my opinion, in no way
commensurate with the inconvenience that often attends the practice.
23. If you are satisfied with teaching him in a slovenly manner, you can
employ your right arm both for the "Toho" and "Drop;" but that is not
quite correct, for the former is a natural stop--being the pause to
determine exactly where the game is lying, preparatory to rushing in to
seize it--which you prolong by art,[6] whilst the other is wholly opposed
to nature. The one affords him great delight, especially when, from
experience, he has learnt well its object: the latter is always irksome.
Nevertheless, it must be firmly established. It is the triumph of your
art. It ensures future obedience. But it cannot be effectually taught
without creating more or less awe, and it should create awe. It is
obvious, therefore, that it must be advantageous to make a distinction
between the two signals--especially with a timid dog--for he will not then
be so likely to blink on seeing you raise your right hand when he is
drawing upon game. Nevertheless, there are breakers so unreasonable as not
only to make that one signal, but the one word "Drop," or rather "Down,"
answer both for the order to point, and the order to crouch! How can such
tuition serve to enlarge a dog's ideas?
24. To perfect him in the "Down," that difficult part of his
education,--difficult, because it is unnatural,--practise it in your
walks. At very uncertain, unexpected times catch his eye, having
previously stealthily taken hold of the checkcord--a long, light one, or a
whistle to call his attention, and then hold up your left arm. If he does
not _instantly_ drop, jerk the checkcord violently, and, as before, drag
him back to the exact spot where he should have crouched down. Admit of no
compromise. You must have _implicit_, _unhesitating_, _instant_ obedience.
When you quit him, he must not be allowed to crawl _an inch_ after you. If
he attempt it, drive a spike into the ground, and attach the end of the
checkcord to it, allowing the line to be slack; then leave him quickly,
and on his running after you he will be brought up with a sudden jerk. So
much the better; it will slightly alarm him. As before, take him back to
the precise place he quitted--do this invariably, though he may have
scarcely moved. There make him again "Drop"--always observing to jerk the
cord at the moment you give the command. After a few trials of this
tethering, say less than a dozen, he will be certain to lie down steadily,
until you give the proper order or a signal--20--let you run away, or do
what you may to excite him to move. One great advantage of frequently
repeating this lesson, and thus teaching it _thoroughly_, is that your dog
will hereafter always feel, more or less, in subjection whenever the cord
is fastened to his collar. He must be brought to instantly obey the
signal, even at the extreme limit of his beat.
25. Most probably he will not at first rise when he is desired. There is
no harm in that--a due sense of the inutility of non-compliance with the
order of "Drop," and a wholesome dread of the attendant penalty, will be
advantageous. Go up to him--pat him--and lead him for some paces, "making
much of him," as they say in the cavalry. Dogs which are over-headstrong
and resolute can only be brought under satisfactory command by this lesson
being indelibly implanted--and I think a master before he allows the
keeper to take a pup into the field to show him game, should insist upon
having ocular demonstration that he is perfect in the "Drop."
26. When he is well confirmed in this all-important lesson, obeying
implicitly, yet cheerfully, you may, whilst he is lying down--in order to
teach him the "down charge"--go through the motions of loading, on no
account permitting him to stir until you give him the forward signal, or
say, "On." After a few times you may fire off a copper cap, and then a
little powder, but be very careful not to alarm him. Until your dog is
quite reconciled to the report of a gun, never take him up to any one who
may be firing. I have, however, known of puppies being familiarized to the
sound, by being at first kept at a considerable distance from the party
firing, and then gradually and by slow degrees brought nearer. This can
easily be managed at a rifle or pigeon match, and the companionship of a
made-dog would much expedite matters. Whenever, in the lessons, your young
dog has behaved steadily and well, give him a reward. Do not throw it to
him: let him take it from your hands. It will assist in making him
tender-mouthed, and in attaching him to you.
27. In some cavalry regiments in India, the feeding-time is denoted by the
firing off of a pistol. This soon changes a young horse's first dread of
the report into eager, joyous expectation. You might, if you did not
dislike the trouble, in a similar manner, soon make your pup regard the
report of a gun as the gratifying summons to his dinner, but coupled with
the understanding that, as a preliminary step, he is to crouch the instant
he hears the sound. After a little perseverance you would so well succeed,
that you would not be obliged even to raise your hand. If habituated to
wait patiently at the "drop," however hungry he may be, before he is
permitted to taste his food, it is reasonable to think he will remain at
the "down charge," yet more patiently before he is allowed to "seek dead."
28. If your pupil is unusually timid, and you cannot banish his alarm on
hearing the gun, couple him to another dog which has no such foolish
fears, and will steadily "down charge." The confidence of the one will
impart confidence to the other. Fear and joy are feelings yet more
contagious in animals than in man. It is the visible, joyous animation of
the old horses, that so quickly reconciles the cavalry colt to the sound
of the "feeding-pistol."
29. A keeper who had several dogs to break, would find the advantage of
pursuing the cavalry plan just noticed. Indeed, he might extend it still
further, by having his principal in-door drill at feeding-time, and by
enforcing, but in minuter details, that kennel discipline which has
brought many a pack of hounds to marvellous obedience. He should place the
food in different parts of the yard. He should have a short checkcord on
all his pupils; and, after going slowly through the motions of loading
(the dogs having regularly "down-charged" on the report of the gun), he
should call each separately by name, and by signals of the hand send them
successively to different, but designated feeding-troughs.[7] He might
then call a dog to him which had commenced eating, and after a short
abstinence, make him go to another trough. He might bring two to his heels
and make them change troughs, and so vary the lesson, that, in a short
time, with the aid of the checkcords, he would have them under such
complete command that they would afterwards give him comparatively but
little trouble in the field. As they became more and more submissive he
would gradually retire further and further, so as, at length, to have his
orders obeyed when at a considerable distance from his pupils. The small
portion of time these lessons would occupy compared with their valuable
results should warn him most forcibly not to neglect them.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] But from his very infancy you ought not to have allowed him to be
disobedient. You should have made him know--which he will do nearly
intuitively--that a whip can punish him, though he ought never to have
_suffered_ from it. I have heard of pups only four months old being made
quite _au fait_ to the preliminary drill here recommended. This early
exercise of their intelligence and observation must have benefited them.
The questionable point is the unnecessary consumption of the instructor's
time.
[5] This is one reason for giving initiatory lessons in the "Toho" before
the "Drop." Another is that the dog may acquire the "Toho" before he has
run the chance of being cowed in learning the "Drop." If the latter were
taught first, he might confound the "Toho" with it.
[6] I know of a young man's reading the first edition of this book, and
taking it into his head to teach his Terrier to point according to the
method just recommended. He succeeded perfectly. Some Terriers have been
made very useful for cover shooting.
[7] There is often such a similarity in the names of hounds, that a person
cannot but be much struck, who for the first time sees them go to their
meals, one by one as they are called.