Part 39 (1/2)
223. Never let a dog whom you have been forced to chastise bolt or creep away until you order him. If he is ever allowed to move off at _his_ wish, he will improve upon the idea, and on the next occasion will far too soon antic.i.p.ate _yours_. And do not send him off until he has given some evidence of having forgiven you, and of his desire to be reconciled, by crawling towards you, for instance, or wagging his tail. On no occasion--under circ.u.mstances of ever such great provocation--be so weak or irritable--but I hope you do not need the warning--as to give him a kick or a blow when he is going off. He ought to have stood with rea.s.sured confidence alongside of you, for perhaps a minute or so, before you sanctioned his departure; and the severer his punishment the longer should have been the detention. You are always to part tolerable friends, while he feels perfectly convinced that his chastis.e.m.e.nt is over. If you do not, you may find it rather difficult to catch him when he commits another fault. It will be owing to your own injudiciousness if he ever becomes afraid of approaching you after making a blunder. Should he be so, sit down. He will gradually draw near you; then quietly put your hand on his collar.
224. If a man cannot readily get hold of any dog under his tuition whom he desires to rate or punish, you may be certain that he fails either in temper or judgment; perhaps in both. He may be an excellent man; but he cannot be a good dog-breaker. There are men who get quite enraged at a dog's not coming instantly to ”heel,” on being called. When at length the poor brute does come within reach, he gets a blow, perhaps a licking--a blow or licking, he has the sense to see he should have longer avoided had he stayed longer away. Thus the punishment increases instead of remedying the evil.
225. Never correct or even rate a dog, in the mere _belief_ that he is in error; be first _convinced_ of his guilt. If you have good reason to suspect that unseen by you he has wilfully sprung birds, still rather give him an earnest caution than any severer rebuke. It is not easy to repair the mischief occasioned by unjust punishment. When from his sheepish look, or any other cause, you imagine that he has raised game, either through heedlessness or from their being unusually wild, be sure to give him a short lecture, and accompany him to the haunt. A lingering bird may occasionally reward you. If his manner has led you to form an incorrect opinion, your warning can have no other effect than to increase his caution--rarely an undesirable result;--and if you are right the admonition is obviously most judicious.
226. Let me caution you against the too common error of punis.h.i.+ng a dog by pulling his ears. It has often occasioned bad canker. Some men are of opinion that it is frequently the cause of premature deafness. When you rate him you may lay hold of an ear and shake it, but not with violence.
227. I would strongly recommend you always to make your young dog ”drop”
for half-a-minute or so, when he, sees a hare; or when he hears a bird rise.[40] To effect this, stand still yourself. After a few seconds you can either hie him on, or, which is yet better, get close to him if you expect other birds to spring. You will thus, especially in potatoes or turnips, often obtain shots at birds which would have made off, had he continued to hunt, and early in the season be frequently enabled to bag the tail-bird of a covey. This plan will also tend to make him cautious, and prevent his getting a habit of blundering-up birds, and cunningly pretending not to have noticed their escape. It will also make him less inclined to chase hares and rabbits, or rush at a fallen bird.
228. On approaching a piece of turnips, you may have heard, ”Let us couple up all the dogs excepting Old Don:” the veteran's experience having shown him, that the only effect of his thundering through them would be to scare every bird and make it rise out of shot. _You_, on the contrary, when your pupil is well confirmed in his range, and has some knowledge of his distance from game, ought to wish the other dogs kept to ”Heel”--especially when the seed has been broadcast,--that by the word ”Care” and the right hand slightly raised you may instil into him the necessary caution and so, by judicious tuition, give him the benefit of your own experience. Most probably you would be obliged to employ the checkcord,[41] which I presume to be always at hand ready for occasional use. Or you might strap your shot-belt round his throat, for it is essential that he traverse such ground slowly, and greatly contract his range--see 145. The several cross scents he will encounter should afford him a valuable lesson in detecting the most recent, and in discriminating between the ”heel and toe” of a run. Be patient,--give him time to work, and consider what he is about. It is probable that he will frequently overrun the birds on their doubling back, and imagine that they are gone.
Should he do so, bring him again on the spot where he appeared to lose the scent. He now rushes up the adjacent drill. ”Slower, slower,” signals your right arm; ”go no faster than I can walk comfortably.” On the other hand, the birds may lie like stones. Not until you have remained nearly a minute alongside of him let him urge them to rise; and make him effect this, not by a sudden dash, but by steadily pressing on the scent. Bear in mind, as before warned--143--that the confidence with which he can here creep on to a near find may lead, if he is now mismanaged, to his springing on future occasions, from want of care, many a bird at which he ought to get you a shot.
229. If you can contrive it, let your pupil have some little experience in the field before you give him a real lesson in ”Gone”--or ”Flown.” Instead of being perplexed, he will then comprehend you. Should you, therefore, during the first few days of hunting him, see birds make off in lieu of taking him to the haunt--as many breakers erroneously do,--carefully keep him from the spot. You cannot let him run riot over the reeking scent without expecting him to do the same when next he finds; and if, in compliance with your orders, he points, you are making a fool of him--there is nothing before him; and if he does not fancy you as bewildered as himself, he will imagine that the exhilarating effluvia he rejoices in is the sum total you both seek. This advice, at first sight, may appear to contradict that given in 111 and 209; but look again, and you will find that those paragraphs referred to peculiar cases. Should your young dog be loitering and sniffing at a haunt which he has _seen_ birds quit, he cannot well mistake the meaning of your calling out, ”Gone, gone.”
FOOTNOTES:
[35] The speed with which one of these extremely beautiful, but in every other respect far, far inferior partridges will run, when only slightly wounded, is quite marvellous.
[36] The force of the word ”Dead”--preceding the command ”Find”--that joyous, exciting note of triumph--ought never to be lessened by being employed, as I have heard it, to stimulate a dog to hunt when no bird is down; or, like the shepherd-boy's cry of ”Wolf! wolf!” it will have little influence at the moment when it should most animate to unremitting exertions.
[37] In favor of such unsportsman-like haste they ingeniously argue that a continued noise after firing makes birds lie, from attracting their attention. They say that a sudden change to quiet--and a great change it must be, for a _cha.s.seur_ is always talking--alarms the birds. As an evidence of this, they adduce the well-known fact of its frequently happening that a partridge gets up the moment the guns have left the spot, though no previous noise had induced it to stir.
[38] Had you lost the bird from there being but little scent, it is probable you might have found it by renewing your search on your return homewards in the evening. If a runner, it would most likely have rejoined the covey.
[39] ”Toho,” rather than ”Drop,”--your object now being to make him stand at, and prevent his mouthing game; for you are satisfied that he would have ”down charged” had the bird been missed.
[40] Of course, with the proviso that he is not pointing at another bird--187.
[41] Lest the cord should cut the turnip-tops, it might be better to employ the elastic band spoken of in 56.
CHAPTER XII.
SHOOTING HARES. COURAGE IMPARTED.--”BACKING” TAUGHT.
230. Probably you may be in a part of the country where you may wish to kill hares to your dog's point. I will, therefore, speak about them, though I confess I cannot do it with much enthusiasm. Ah! my English friend, what far happier autumns we should spend could we but pa.s.s them in the Highlands! Then we should think little about those villanous hares. We should direct the whole _undivided_ faculties of our dogs, to work out the haunt of the n.o.ble grouse.[42] As for rabbits, I beg we may have no further acquaintance, if you ever even in imagination, shoot them to your young dog. Should you be betrayed into so vile a practice, you must resign all hope of establis.h.i.+ng in him a confirmed systematic range. He will degenerate into a low potterer,--a regular hedge-hunter. In turnips he will always be thinking more of rabbits than birds. It will be soon enough to shoot the little wretches to him when he is a venerable grandfather.
The youngster's noticing them--which he would be sure to do if you had ever killed one to him--might frequently lead to your mis-instructing him, by earnestly enforcing ”Care” at a moment when you ought to rate him loudly with the command ”Ware”--or ”No.” But to our immediate subject.
231. Defer as long as possible the evil day of shooting a hare over him, that he may not get too fond--65--of such vermin--I beg pardon, I mean game--and when you do kill one, so manage that he may not see it put into the bag. On no account let him mouthe it. You want him to love the pursuit of feather more than of fur, that he may never be taken off the faintest scent of birds by coming across the taint of a hare. I therefore entreat you, during his first season, if you will shoot hares, to fire only at those which you are likely to kill outright; for the taint of a wounded hare is so strong that it would probably diminish his zeal, and the sensitiveness of his nose, in searching for a winged bird.
232. The temptation is always great to quit for a strong scent of hare--which any coa.r.s.e-nosed dog can follow--a feeble one of birds; therefore it is a very satisfactory test of good breaking to see a dog, when he is drawing upon birds, in no way interrupted by a hare having just crossed before him. If you aim at such excellence, and it is frequently attained in the Highlands, it is certain you must not shoot hares over your youngster.
233. I hope that he will not see a hare before you have shot a few birds over him. The first that springs up near him will test the perfection to which he has attained in his initiatory lessons. Lose not a moment. It is most essential to restrain instantaneously the naturally strong impulse of the dog to run after four-footed game. Halloo out ”Drop” to the extent of your voice,--raise your hand,--crack your whip,--do all you can to prevent his pursuing. Of course you will not move an inch. Should he commence running, thunder out ”No,” ”no.” If, in spite of everything, he bolts after the hare, you have nothing for it but patience. It's no use to give yourself a fit of asthma by following him. You have only half as many legs as he has--a deficiency you would do well to keep secret from him as long as possible. Wait quietly where you are--for an hour if necessary. You have one consolation,--puss, according to her usual custom, has run down wind,--your dog has lost sight of her, and is, I see, with his nose to the ground, giving himself an admirable lesson in reading out a haunt. After a time he will come back looking rather ashamed of himself, conscious that he did wrong in disobeying, and vexed with himself from having more than a suspicion forced upon him, that he cannot run so fast as the hare. When he has nearly reached you, make him ”drop.” Scold him severely, saying, ”Ware chase”--a command that applies to the chase of birds as well as of hares.--Pull him to the place where he was when first he got a view of the hare,--make him lie down--rate him well,--call out ”No,” or ”Hare,” or ”Ware chase,” or any word you choose, provided you uniformly employ the same. Smack the whip and punish him with it, but not so severely as you did when we a.s.sumed that he tore the bird--end of 221. You then flogged him for two offences: first, because he rushed in and seized the bird; secondly, because he tore it and _tasted_ blood. If you had not then punished him severely, you could never have expected him to be tender-mouthed. On the next occasion he might have swallowed the bird, feathers and all.
234. Should he persist in running after hares, you must employ the checkcord. If you see the hare, at which he is pointing, in its form, drive a peg firmly into the ground, and attach the cord to it, giving him a few slack yards, so that after starting off he may be arrested with a tremendous jerk. Fasten the line to the part of the spike close to the ground, or he may pull it out.
235. I have known a dog to be arrested in a headlong chase by a shot fired at him--an act which you will think yet more reprehensible than the previous mismanagement for which his owner apparently knew no other remedy than this hazardous severity.