It is said that the way to have a perfect dog is to let it live with
you, but it seems to be an excellent way to teach the dog to obey only
when he likes, for if his master insists on obedience other people who
_will_ take an interest in a nice dog, will pet, spoil, order, and coax
by turns. The collie is put forward as the most wonderful exhibition of
dog breaking, but the author has rarely seen a collie take the order to
come to heel, or to go home, when a stranger approaches the shepherd’s
house. The good sheep-dog has a duty to perform that he likes, and he
does it well, but ask him to do anything besides, and he objects, and
gets his way. The spaniel’s business is the most taxing of all, and
requires the best breaking, except when the retriever is broken to do
spaniel’s duty as well as his own, as he can. That is to say, he can
find live rabbits in their seats and turn them out to the gun, and stand
still as they go. This is far more of a tax on any dog than steadiness
in pointing, when the breaker turns out the pointed game. The turning
out often amounts to an attempt to catch a rabbit in its seat; and the
instantaneous stop when the creature moves is, as nearly as may be, the
exercise of the savage impulse with the civilised control in mid career.
Perfect hand breaking of the retriever includes fetching and finding
inanimate objects, dropping to order, remaining down for any length of
time, coming to order, hunting in any direction indicated by the
breaker, not only to right and left as desired, but far or near as
bidden. All these teachings will come naturally to a man fond of dogs,
just as a nurse fond of children will make them do anything without any
book of rules. Consequently, the only point necessary to insist upon is
the utmost quickness of obedience in all things. This is got by surprise
orders at moments and in situations when the dog cannot help but obey,
and by an economy of orders, so that the pupil never gets tired. The
quickness in returning with a retrieved object is usually learnt by
means of the breaker starting to run away as soon as the object is
lifted. By means of this trick, and never boring the pupil with too much
work in his play-time, as going out with his breaker should be to him,
any dog can be taught to return on the instant; and a good education in
this point has much influence on a retriever’s softness of mouth. By
this coaching he will be brought to do things instinctively, and when he
comes to game he will then have no time to stop to select the best
grasp, but he will come at full gallop, whatever his first hold of his
game may be, and when this is the case he never will grow hard-mouthed.
Consequently, your hand breaking goes _half-way_ to make the mouth.