Dogs and All about Them

It would be idle to expect that the offspring of unbroken sire and dam can be as easily educated as a Retriever whose parents before him have been properly trained. Inherited qualities count for a great deal in the adaptability of all sporting dogs, and the reason why one meets with so many Retrievers that are incapable or disobedient or gun-shy is simply that their preliminary education has been neglected--the education which should begin when the dog is very young. In his earliest youth he should be trained to prompt obedience to a given word or a wave of the hand. It is well to teach him very early to enter water, or he may be found wanting when you require him to fetch a bird from river or lake. Lessons in retrieving ought to be a part of his daily routine. Equally necessary is it to break him in to the knowledge that sheep and lambs are not game to be chased, and that rabbits and hares are to be discriminated from feathered game. Gun-shyness is often supposed to be hereditary; but it is not so. Any puppy can be cured of gun-shyness in half a dozen short lessons. Sir Henry Smith's advice is to get your puppy accustomed to the sound and sight of a gun being fired, first at a distance and gradually nearer and nearer, until he knows that no harm will come to him. Companionship and sympathy between dog and master is the beginning and end of the whole business, and there is a moral obligation between them which ought never to be strained.