Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

a funk which, in nine cases out of ten, is permanent.1 How to make him come to heel or to his proper place is treated of later on; and how to handle him so as to put him at once beyond the possibility of being "gun-shy" is of vital importance. A gun-shy dog, it goes without saying, is useless to a sportsman. The very mention of the word carries consternation with it. The wretched animal proved to be suffering from this vice, or disease, or whatever you please to call it, is straightway doomed to destruction; and were he the handsomest and best-tempered dog in the kennel, the sentence is ruthlessly carried out without loss of time; and so apprehensive are the purchasing public of being "let in,' that advertisements akin to the following, which appeared in the 'Field' quite recently, are occasionally met with. Condensed it runs as follows: "Messrs Warner, Sheppard, & Wade will sell 'Bang,' 'Rex,'' Don,'" &c., naming seven pointers. "All are steady and reliable dogs, and have been heavily shot over. 'Box,' a first rate no-slip retriever. All above are warranted not gun-shy." What would be thought, I wonder, of an advertisement describing a hunter as "a very fine fencer and temperate, suitable for an elderly gentleman, has been broken." Yet the latter advertisement is no more ridiculous than the former. How dogs that are afraid of the gun can be described as heavily shot over and perfect no-slip retrievers passes my comprehension. If the adver

[ocr errors]

tisement means anything, it means presumably to satisfy those who look upon the failing as some hereditary taint latent in the canine race 2 2—a taint of a most mysterious nature, ready to break out with complications at any time, like the influenza, and conclude that "Rab and his friends " -I mean Bang, Rex, and Co.having had many attacks, have outgrown the disease, and are not likely to have any more. "Shirley's dogs often turn out gun-shy," said a friend to me when we were one day conversing on things canine. Now, no dogs "turn out" gun-shy, whether they belong to Mr Shirley or to any one else; they are made gun-shy by the ignorance and imbecility of the keeper or breaker to whom they are intrusted for their education. A gun-shy dog is simply a timid dog mismanaged in breaking. The same dog would almost to a certainty be a whip-shy dog, or an umbrella-suddenly-opened-inhis-face-shy dog, to make rather a long adjective of it. Say that two or three puppies were playing in a farmyard, and a pack of hounds came suddenly through, the servants cracking their whips after the stragglers like pistolshots, what would the puppies do? Bolt, every man of them—one to the stable, another to the byre, another among the ducks and geese. One, however, it might be, would stand his ground longer than the rest. Say, on the other hand, that the hounds were passing some fields away, with the

1 "Goad, I wudna wonder if he's rinnin' the sheep," I once overheard a Lowland keeper remark, whose dog had unaccountably disappeared; and "rinnin'" them he was with a vengeance, being about three-quarters of a mile away with a lot of "Cheviots" in front of him; and this man had had the dog under his charge from puppyhood in a country where there was little else than sheep! 2 When I advertised recently two puppies for sale, six weeks old, an individual wrote to ask if I would guarantee them not gun-shy!

same pistol-shots going off, what would the puppies do then? cock their ears all of them and trot a little nearer, led by the most courageous, to hear what the commotion was. Dogs and human beings are in nowise different from one another in some important particulars. Some are constitutionally bold, others timid, and the more timid a dog is, the greater the distance should be between him and the gun when he hears it for the first time, and when you propose to accustom him to the sound of it. If keepers appreciated this axiom, and would take a little trouble, a gun-shy dog would be a rara avis indeed; and I am bold enough to say that any dog can be put beyond the possibility of becoming gun-shy in half-a-dozen lessons of ten minutes each. Some keepers take a considerable amount of trouble in teaching their dogs. to fetch and carry; but it never enters into their calculations that a puppy may fail in the most important particular, or that it is in their power to avert what possibly may happen on the twelfth of August, or the first of September. A young and rather timid dog is taken out, generally on a cord; a right and left, perhaps from more than one gun, is suddenly fired nearly over his back. The noise frightens him, the restraint of the cord makes matters worse, and he is thoroughly cowed. "Damn the brute, he's gun-shy," says some intelligent sportsman; "shoot him." "So he is," says Donald. "That is a peety; the very puppy the maister picket oot for hissel' -the best-looking o' the lot."

Neither he nor his master, when he draws him aside that evening and tells him with bated breath the result of the puppy's first day, has the slightest idea that any one

has been wanting in his duty. It is a dispensation of Providence— the puppy has "turned out" gunshy, and the beautiful young dog's first day is also his last.

[ocr errors]

Let us look now at the method adopted by those conversant with the "disease," to secure immunity from it. A writer in the Field' who signs his name, and is evidently a sportsman, gravely advocates the following course of instruction :—

"Having taught him this lessonto answer to whistle-take him one

day on to the lawn, and crack off a half-charged cartridge. If he bolts off to his kennel, try the whistle. Probably no effect: then simply follow him and chain him up whilst comforting his shattered nerves. If your pup is shy the first shot, try him again shortly, making much of him : he will soon come to.'

I have read many recipes, but this fairly beats all. A surer way of ruining your dog could not be devised. You are simply recommended in cold blood to create the disease and then give yourself the task of curing it. If the puppy's nerves are "shattered," the harm is done, and he will fear the second discharge more than the first. You have now got a gun-shy dog, and though you may cure him, it will only be by the expenditure of an enormous amount of patience and perseverance.

Some keepers are in the habit of firing a pistol before feedingtime, the meaning of this manœuvre being that the dogs may associate the sound with something pleasant, and in longing for their food, long for the noise that invariably announces it. The idea is not a particularly original one, and the success or otherwise of the system depends on the size of the pistol and the disposition of the dog. A large pistol would undoubtedly

a funk which, in nine cases out of ten, is permanent.1 How to make him come to heel or to his proper place is treated of later on; and how to handle him so as to put him at once beyond the possibility of being 'gun-shy" is of vital importance. A gun-shy dog, it goes without saying, is useless to a sportsman. The very mention of the word carries consternation with it. The wretched animal proved to be suffering from this vice, or disease, or whatever you please to call it, is straightway doomed to destruction; and were he the handsomest and best-tempered dog in the kennel, the sentence is ruthlessly carried out without loss of time; and so apprehensive are the purchasing public of being "let in," that advertisements akin to the following, which appeared in the 'Field' quite recently, are occasionally met with. Condensed it runs as follows: "Messrs Warner, Sheppard, & Wade will sell 'Bang,' 'Rex,' 'Don,'" &c., naming seven pointers. "All are steady and reliable dogs, and have been heavily shot over. 'Box,' a firstrate no-slip retriever. All above are warranted not gun-shy." What would be thought, I wonder, of an advertisement describing a hunter as "a very fine fencer and temperate, suitable for an elderly gentleman, has been broken." Yet the latter advertisement is no more ridiculous than the former. How dogs that are afraid of the gun can be described as heavily shot over and perfect no-slip retrievers passes my comprehension. If the adver

1

[ocr errors]

2

[ocr errors]

tisement means anything, it means presumably to satisfy those who look upon the failing as some hereditary taint latent in the canine race -a taint of a most mysterious nature, ready to break out with complications at any time, like the influenza, and conclude that "Rab and his friends I mean Bang, Rex, and Co.having had many attacks, have outgrown the disease, and are not likely to have any more. "Shirley's dogs often turn out gun-shy," said a friend to me when we were one day conversing on things canine. Now, no dogs "turn out" gun-shy, whether they belong to Mr Shirley or to any one else; they are made gun-shy by the ignorance and imbecility of the keeper or breaker to whom they are intrusted for their education. A gun-shy dog is simply a timid dog mismanaged in breaking. The same dog would almost to a certainty be a whip-shy dog, or an umbrella-suddenly-opened-inhis-face-shy dog, to make rather a long adjective of it. Say that two or three puppies were playing in a farmyard, and a pack of hounds came suddenly through, the servants cracking their whips after the stragglers like pistolshots, what would the puppies do? Bolt, every man of them—one to the stable, another to the byre, another among the ducks and

geese. One, however, it might be, would stand his ground longer than the rest. Say, on the other hand, that the hounds were passing some fields away, with the

Goad, I wudna wonder if he's rinnin' the sheep," I once overheard a Lowland keeper remark, whose dog had unaccountably disappeared; and "rinnin'" them he was with a vengeance, being about three-quarters of a mile away with a lot of "Cheviots" in front of him; and this man had had the dog under his charge from puppyhood in a country where there was little else than sheep! 2 When I advertised recently two puppies for sale, six weeks old, an individual wrote to ask if I would guarantee them not gun-shy!

same pistol-shots going off, what would the puppies do then? cock their ears all of them and trot a little nearer, led by the most courageous, to hear what the commotion was. Dogs and human. beings are in nowise different from one another in some important particulars. Some are constitutionally bold, others timid, and the more timid a dog is, the greater the distance should be between him and the gun when he hears it for the first time, and when you propose to accustom him to the sound of it. If keepers appreciated this axiom, and would take a little trouble, a gun-shy dog would be a rara avis indeed; and I am bold enough to say that any dog can be put beyond the possibility of becoming gun-shy in half-a-dozen lessons of ten minutes each. Some keepers take a considerable amount of trouble in teaching their dogs to fetch and carry; but it never enters into their calculations that a puppy may fail in the most important particular, or that it is in their power to avert what possibly may happen on the twelfth of August, or the first of September. A young and rather timid dog is taken out, generally on a cord; a right and left, perhaps from more than one gun, is suddenly fired nearly over his back. The noise frightens him, the restraint of the cord makes matters worse, and he is thoroughly cowed. "Damn the brute, he's gun-shy," says some intelligent sportsman; "shoot him." "So he is," says Donald. "That is a peety; the very puppy the maister picket oot for hissel' -the best-looking o' the lot."

Neither he nor his master, when he draws him aside that evening and tells him with bated breath the result of the puppy's first day, has the slightest idea that any one

has been wanting in his duty. It is a dispensation of Providencethe puppy has "turned out" gunshy, and the beautiful young dog's first day is also his last.

Let us look now at the method adopted by those conversant with the "disease," to secure immunity from it. A writer in the 'Field' who signs his name, and is evidently a sportsman, gravely advocates the following course of instruction :—

"Having taught him this lessonto answer to whistle-take him one

day on to the lawn, and crack off a half-charged cartridge. If he bolts off to his kennel, try the whistle. Probably no effect: then simply follow him and chain him up whilst comforting his shattered nerves. If your pup is shy the first shot, try him he will soon come to. again shortly, making much of him :

I have read many recipes, but this fairly beats all. A surer way of ruining your dog could not be devised. You are simply recommended in cold blood to create the disease and then give yourself the task of curing it. If the puppy's nerves are "shattered," the harm is done, and he will fear the second discharge more than the first. You have now got a gun-shy dog, and though you may cure him, it will only be by the expenditure of an enormous amount of patience and perseverance.

Some keepers are in the habit of firing a pistol before feedingtime, the meaning of this manœuvre being that the dogs may associate the sound with something pleas ant, and in longing for their food, long for the noise that invariably announces it. The idea is not a particularly original one, and the success or otherwise of the system depends on the size of the pistol and the disposition of the dog. A large pistol would undoubtedly

[ocr errors]

frighten a timid dog; a pistol toy might not. Perhaps keepers with many dogs under their charge lay in a stock of the weapons in question, from the old-fashioned horse to the modern "Deringer," to suit their patients. But why, I would ask, run the risk at all? Why fire a pistol, large or small, near a young dog till you know he will not be afraid of it? I have said, and I repeat, that any puppy can be put beyond the possibility of being gun-shy in half-a-dozen short lessons. Gunshyness in a dog is no more hereditary than train-shyness in a horse. The gun-shy dog and the train-shy horse have been made so by mismanagement. Both can be cured, and can be made in time to look on their pet aversions, the gun and the train, with equanimity nay, more, in the case of the dog with affection; but, take my advice, educate the animals in question properly you will find it very much easier than curing them when spoilt. If you have a pair of young horses that have never seen a train, to put them in the family barouche, containing the wife of your bosom, drive them to a level-crossing, and after fastening them to the gates, wait contentedly for the approach of the "Flying Scotsman," would be-putting it mildly-injudicious. Instead of adopting this plan, you halt your horses on the approach of a train at some considerable distance from the line, and if they are not frightened, take them a little nearer on the next opportunity; or what is far better-you turn them out when still young into a field by the side of the railway, and leave them absolutely free and unfettered to gallop away as far as they like when they hear the engine coming. The very fact of their being free robs the situation of half its terrors,

[ocr errors]

the gallop gets shorter day by day, and before very long they take little or no notice of its approach. Pursue the same tactics with your dog when accustoming him to the gun. The modus operandi-simple enough in all conscience-should be as follows. Take him into a courtyard with a gate to it, or into a field behind a wire fence, or into any enclosed space where he can see what is going on outside. Do not restrain him by a cord or chain. Leave him free to run about or retreat should he feel so inclined. Send your keeper a long way off-say 150 yards (the more timid the dog, remember the greater should be the distance)— make him fire a shot, watch the dog, and you will at once see how much nearer-if at all-the shot should be fired next time. After a few shots he will probably be eager to get up to the gun, more especially if you make the day a pleasant one and give him something to look for. All this seems much ado about nothing, and keepers are above taking trouble of this sort, but if you have a valuable dog he is worth making sure of. I have two bitches just now, beautiful workers, very keen, and very fond of the gun. Both, I am confident, would have been made gun-shy had I not been careful with them. You must judge by the disposition of the dog how much care is necessary: never risk a shot close by at first, however bold the puppy seems; for remember once the harm is done it can't be undone save at a vast expenditure of time and patience.

When I began breaking retrievers many years ago, I had a wonderfully reliable old dog, and the method I adopted when commencing a puppy's education was to couple the recruit and the veteran together. The old one

« PoprzedniaDalej »