wed 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