blunders up three-fourths of the birds he finds. No! not _finds_, but
frightens,--for he is not aware of their presence until they are on the
wing, and seldom points unless he gets some heedless bird right under his
nose, when an ignoramus, in admiration of the beauty of the dog's sudden
attitude, will often forget the mischief which he has done.

145. Though you cannot improve a dog's nose, you can do what is nearly
tantamount to it--you can increase his caution. By watching for the
slightest token of his feathering, and then calling out "Toho," or making
the signal, you will gradually teach him to look out for the faintest
indication of a scent, and _point the instant he winds it_, instead of
heedlessly hunting on until he meets a more exciting effluvia. See 174 to
176, and 228.

146. If from a want of animation in his manner you are not able to judge
of the moment when he first winds game, and you thus are not able to call
out "Toho" until he gets close to birds, quietly pull him back from his
point "dead to leeward" for some paces, and there make him resume his
point. Perseverance in this plan will ultimately effect your wishes,
unless his nose is radically wrong. A dog's pointing too near his game
more frequently arises from want of caution--in other words, from want of
good instruction--than from a defective nose.

147. Slow dogs readily acquire this caution; but fast dogs cannot be
taught it without great labor. You have to show them the necessity of
diminishing their pace, that their noses may have fair play. If you have
such a pupil to instruct, when you get near birds you have marked down,
signal to him to come to "heel" _Whisper_ to him "Care," and let him see
by your light, slow tread, your anxiety not to alarm the birds. If he has
never shown any symptoms of blinking, you may, a few times, thus spring
the birds yourself while you keep him close to you. On the next occasion
of marking down birds, or coming to a very likely spot, bring him into
"heel," and after an impressive injunction to take "care," give him two or
three very limited casts to the right or left, and let _him_ find the
birds while you instruct him as described in 228. As there will be no fear
of such a dog making false points, take him often to the fields where he
has most frequently met birds. The expectation of again coming on them,
and the recollection of the lectures he there received, will be likely to
make him cautious on entering i