144.

201. After you have shot over a dog a short time, his manner and attitude
will enable you to guess pretty accurately whether birds are really before
him; whether they are far off or near; and whether or not they are on the
move. Generally speaking, the higher he carries his head, and the less he
stiffens his stern, the further off are the birds. If he begins to look
nervous, and become fidgety, you will seldom be wrong in fancying they are
on the run. But various, and at times most curious, are the methods that
dogs will adopt, _apparently_ with the wish to show you where the birds
are, and _certainly_ with the desire to get you a shot.

CHAPTER XI.

FIRST LESSON IN AUTUMN CONCLUDED. BAR. LEG STRAP. SPIKE COLLAR.

202. After a few trials you will, I hope, be able to dispense with the peg
recommended in 194, and soon after with the checkcord also. But if your
dog possesses unusually high spirits, or if he travels over the ground at
a pace which obviously precludes his making a proper use of his nose, it
may be advisable to fasten to his collar a bar, something like a
diminutive splinter-bar, that it may, by occasional knocking against his
shins, feelingly admonish him to lessen his stride. If he gets it between
his legs and thus finds it no annoyance, attach it to both sides of his
collar from points near the extremities. One of his forelegs might
occasionally be passed through the collar; but this plan is not so good as
the other; nor as the strap on the hind leg--56. These means--to be
discarded, however, as soon as obedience is established--are far better
than the _temporary_ ascendancy which some breakers establish by low diet
and excessive work, which would only weaken his spirits and his bodily
powers, without eradicating his self will, or improving his intellect. You
want to force him, when he is in the highest health and vigor, to learn by
experience the advantage of letting his nose dwell longer on a feeble
scent.

203. I have made no mention of the spiked collar, because it is a brutal
instrument, which none but the most ignorant or unthinking would employ.
It is a leather collar, into which nails, much longer than the thickness
of the collar, have been driven, with their points projecting inwards. The
French spike-collar is nearly as severe. It is formed of a series of
wooden balls,--larger than marbles,--linked--about two and a half inches
apart--into a chain by stiff wires bent into the for