Among the many clever things that a gamekeeper's retriever learns is
how to mark a partridge which flies a long way and then towers. When
once he has grasped what is meant by the rising of a covey, the firing
of a shot, and the sight of a bird soaring away from the rest and
falling like a stone, he soon begins to watch for the bird that towers,
even without the exhortation, "Mark that bird!" A clever retriever
will mark the distant fall of a bird seen by no one but himself, and
either will dash off for the spot or show strong symptoms of wanting
to go. The well-trained dog finds the bird that he has not seen fall.
On being ordered to "go on" he gallops in the direction indicated by a
wave of his master's hand, and when he hears the word "Halt," or sees
a hand-signal, then he begins to cast, and seldom in vain. A retriever
will retrace his steps for a couple of miles or more to bring home a
dead rabbit or bird which his master has left behind in mistake. One
fine retriever had been trained never to give up game except to her
master; and it happened that as she was picking up a dead hare another
was wounded and ran away before her. She set off in pursuit, carrying
the dead hare, and though every man in a long line of beaters, keepers,
and guns attempted to relieve her of her burden, she refused to give
it up. On catching the wounded hare, she calmly held it down with one
paw and waited until her master came to her assistance. Keepers, of all
men, have least doubt about the reasoning powers of their dogs.
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