udge he ought to have pointed at first, and
awaited your instructions.

176. Think for one moment what could be the use of chiding--or beating, as
I have seen some ***** do--the poor animal at the spot where he flushed
the birds. You are not displeased with him (or ought not to be) because
the birds took wing,--for if they had remained stationary until he was
within a yard of them, his fault would have been the same: nor are you
angry with him because he did not catch them--which interpretation he
might, as naturally as any other, put upon your rating him at the spot
where he flushed them--you are displeased with him for _not having
pointed_ at them steadily the moment he became sensible of their presence.
This is what you wish him to understand, and this you can only teach him
by dragging him, as has been so often said, to the spot at which he ought
to have "toho-ed" them. Your object is to give the young dog, by
instruction, the caution that most old dogs have acquired by experience.
Doubtless experience would in time convince him of the necessity of this
caution; but you wish to save time,--to anticipate that experience; and by
a judicious education impart to him knowledge which it would take him
years to acquire otherwise. What a dog gains by experience is not what you
teach him, but what he teaches himself.

177. Many carelessly-taught dogs will, on first recognising a scent, make
a momentary point, and then slowly crawl on until they get within a few
yards of the game--if it be sufficiently complaisant to allow of such a
near approach--and there "set" as steady as a rock by the hour together.
Supposing, however, that the birds are in an unfriendly, distant mood, and
not willing to remain on these neighborly terms, "your game is up," both
literally and metaphorically,--you have no chance of getting a shot. This
is a common fault among dogs hastily broken in the spring.

178. But to resume our supposed lesson. You must not be in a hurry--keep
your dog for some time--for a long time, where he should have pointed. You
may even sit down alongside him. Be patient; you have not come out so much
to shoot, as to break in your dog. When at length you give him the wave of
the hand to hie him on to hunt, you must not part as enemies, though I do
not say he is to be caressed. He has committed a fault, and he is to be
made sensible of it by your altered manner.

Suppose that, after two or three such errors, all treated in the