porting 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.

Both as a worker and as a show dog the flat-coated Retriever has
reached something very near to the ideal standard of perfection which
has been consistently bred up to. Careful selection and systematic
breeding, backed up by enthusiasm, have resulted in the production
of a dog combining useful working qualities with the highest degree
of beauty.

A very prominent admirer and breeder was the late Mr. S. E. Shirley,
the President of the Kennel Club, who owned many Retrievers
superlative both as workers and as show dogs, and who probably did
more for the breed than any other man of his generation.

[Illustration: MR. H. REGINALD COOKE'S RETRIEVER CH. WORSLEY BESS
_From the Painting by Maud Earl_]

Mr. Shirley's work was carried on by Mr. Harding Cox, who devoted
much time and energy to the production of good Retrievers, many of
which were of Mr. Shirley's strain. Mr. Cox's dogs deservedly achieved
considerable fame for their levelness of type, and the improvement
in heads so noticeable at the present time is to be ascribed to his
breeding for this point. Mr. L. Allen Shuter, the owner of Ch. Darenth
and other excellent Retrievers of his own breeding, claims also a
large share of credit for the part he has pla