Part 19

By this plan the show flat-coated breed has come to the extreme front for the first time in the history of the field trials. Probably it will be interesting briefly to enumerate the principal features of retriever trials. Nobody ought to be able to do it better than the author, for he is the only man who has seen them all. The first was a very modest effort attached to the 1870 autumn shooting trials of pointers and setters, held at Vaynol Park, which fine property the late Mr. Assheton-Smith had just before inherited. The following year, at the same trials, there were two stakes for these dogs. The author hunted a puppy which was quite good on wounded partridges, but the very worst possible retriever on a wounded hare. The first thing he was set to do was to get a wounded “squarnog,” as a hare is called in Welsh. Strange to say, on the fine rushy, damp fields of Vaynol, the expected wild-goose chase came off, and the _useless_ hare retriever came back with the spoils of victory. A retriever, possibly belonging to Mr. Lloyd Price, was entered at the same time by the late Mr. Thomas Ellis of Bala, for the aged dog stake, and won very easily. The “Devil” had been obviously named for his looks. He was a curly sandy-brown, with whiskers like an otter hound. His victory reached the ears of the Welsh Church, and caused remonstrance against taking in vain names of potent powers. This had so much effect on the Welsh squire, that the following year he entered a son of the Devil and called it “Country Rector,” possibly thereby avoiding the danger he had been cautioned against. That year it was clear once more that the show beauties were out-classed, and probably that was the reason why, when the Vaynol ground was no longer available, no other trials except the Sleaford failures were instituted for thirty years, or until those of the Retriever Society, which are now held annually. These began about the opening of the new century, and appear likely to see it out. But the first meeting under it was a failure. The winning dog was either very old or very slow, and it was not until the following year that any smart work was seen. This was done by Mr. Abbott’s Rust, whose name explains her colour and appearance; but she did some brilliant work, especially when she was set to wipe the eye of one which appeared to have a good chance until she had failed at a running pheasant, one that gave Rust no trouble whatever ten minutes later, and with so much the worse chance. Rust on that occasion was the only dog present that either by pedigree or reversion went back to the old race of retrievers. This was reminiscent of the “Devil” triumph, and was far from encouraging to the beauty men. The following season Rust was again out, but far too fat and sleek to do herself justice, and she was beaten by the life of idleness she had been leading as a hearth-dog, and also by a very nice black bitch with some white upon it, belonging to the late Mr. Charles Eley, whose son, Mr. C. C. Eley, had taken second with a nice-looking black in Rust’s year. Three Messrs. Eley were in the field for honours in the following years, and by the assistance of Satanella, a bitch without known pedigree, and Sandiway Major (by Wimpole Peter) they headed the working division. Sandiway Major was a triumph for the show pedigree, as his sire was a Champion; but it was noticed that Major was a very distinct reversion to the old wavy-coated sort, for he was quite as much a curly as a flat coated-one. He had been purchased out of one of Mr. George Davies’ annual retriever sales at Aldridge’s, and his work was good although perhaps not brilliant. This was not all that the show men could desire, and the following year another sandy liver-coloured dog, named Mr. A. T. Williams’ Don o Gerwn, easily won first. This dog was a son of that Rust spoken of before, and his sire was a cream-coloured dog of Lord Tweedmouth’s strain—even more of a facer for the believers in exhibition dogs. But on this occasion another son of Wimpole Peter was third, and in 1905 turned the tables on Don of Gerwn. This was a handsome but somewhat slow dog belonging to Colonel Cotes of Pitchford. Don put himself out of court by not condescending to notice dead game, and hunting on the principle of “nothing but runners attended to.” The Pitchford dog is descended from a very old working strain, which first figured in public when one of them appeared in the pages of the _Sporting Magazine_ about the year Queen Victoria came to the throne. But, as a son of Wimpole Peter won the stake, and three sons of Horton Rector were high up in it, the exhibition division has every right to be pleased with its first unalloyed triumph. Mr. Allan Shuter, as the owner of the living Rector, has even more reason to be pleased than Mr. Radcliffe Cooke, as sometime owner of the now dead Peter. But Mr. Shuter’s own entry was not at all what was wanted, for he was too big, too lumbering in body, and not particularly nimble in mind. Mr. Remnant has come near winning first on various occasions, and may be looked upon as a sportsman likely to improve the breed, by the neglect of beauty spots and selection for the fittest, as also very decidedly may be Mr. C. C. Eley, Major Eley his brother, and their cousin, Captain Eley, and Mr. G. R. Davies. Captain Harding, too, in Salop, has the right sort, and his Almington Merlin has had bad luck, or another Wimpole Peter would have come to the front.

That these retriever trials are doing good, in starting breeders who are trying to correct the working faults of the various breeds, is obvious, and with the public spirit exhibited by the late Mr. Assheton-Smith future sportsmen will assuredly associate the names of Mr. B. J. Warwick, Mr. C. C. Eley, and Mr. William Arkwright, not only as founders of the Retriever Society, but also as finders of the game on which the dogs have been tried.

Everybody who is acquainted with the average dogs seen at shooting parties, and has the advantage of ever having seen a really good one, will know how very necessary was some such move as these field trials. It often has been said that all the retrievers could do was to pick up game the men could see. It has become fashionable to demand a no-slip retriever—that is, one that will not run in to retrieve until ordered to do so. Perhaps it has been the readiness with which such dogs have sold that has caused breakers to prefer the slugs, as being the most easily controlled, and the least likely to be returned by purchasers as wild. Whatever has done it, the real game-loving instinct is much weakened since the time when a retriever was a working dog or nothing; but it appears to survive in a modified degree, which may assuredly be strengthened by selection.

It has been previously stated that the waiting until drives are over makes the retrievers work harder than of old, but this does not apply to the hardest of all work—that is, covert shooting; for this has been largely “driving” ever since retrievers were introduced, if it can be said that they ever were introduced. This point is rather doubtful, because the curly retriever is nothing more than an altered edition of the old English water-dog, which variety used to do wildfowler’s duty, with a white leg or two, a white chest and a short tail, which had probably been cut like those of other spaniels. The first retriever the author shot over was entirely of this description, stern and all, except that she was all black, or so nearly whole-coloured that no white upon her can be remembered. This was about 1860, and a son of this “missing link” was particularly smart, and had so good a mouth, that on one occasion, when he annexed a hen sitting on her nest, and carried her half a mile, she was returned to her treasures and sat upon them, none the worse for her involuntary excursion into the next parish. That calls to mind the frequently made statement that it is wrong to give dogs hard things to retrieve. The idea is that it teaches them to bite and to be hard-mouthed. That is an entire mistake, and this dog, like many another, was often made to retrieve stones, and to prove whether he bit them he was occasionally sent back for hen’s eggs, but never broke one.

It is said, too, that the old dogs were lumbering, and so no doubt the Newfoundland type of wavy-coated dogs were, but this hen-and-egg carrier, like his mother, was active enough. He was not steady to heel, but was as sharp as a lurcher, and in cover it was difficult in his presence to miss a rabbit. No wounded one would get to its hole, and a good many that were not wounded were nevertheless retrieved and duly credited to the shooter. Now it is considered a strain on the breaking and a temptation to the mouth of a retriever to trust him with ground game in his first season. Although this particular dog was never broken to stop at heel, such rules, if they existed then, were more honoured by the breach than the keeping, and the dogs were mostly as steady and as soft-mouthed as any now.

The author has used a retriever often with a team of wild spaniels, and constantly with setters and pointers, without any running in of broken dogs, except in the cases already mentioned, and these are the highest trials of the steadiness of retrievers. In hunting a brace of young setters there is obviously no time to argue with a retriever, not even with a shooting-boot, and the author has had no trouble, as a rule, to make his retrievers conspicuous only by their invisibility behind, until they were called upon for action.

One great dog man makes his retrievers “back” when his dogs point. But pointing and setting dogs take no notice, and do not break in, when they are in the habit of looking upon the retriever as a part of the gun. It may be, however, that when black pointers are used a backer might mistake a retriever for a drawing pointer, and be thus led into error; and if so, this is a serious objection to black and black-and-tan index dogs.

The worst cross the author ever made was with Zelstone. Although not a large dog, he was said to be a pure bred Newfoundland. He was a flat-coated retriever Champion, and may have been himself a good worker; but he ruined the working qualities of the descendants of Jenny above mentioned, and brought the author’s strain of them to an end. Consequently, it is suggested that the Newfoundland is the type to breed out of the flat coats.

BREAKING THE RETRIEVER

It is said that the way to have a perfect dog is to let it live with you, but it seems to be an excellent way to teach the dog to obey only when he likes, for if his master insists on obedience other people who _will_ take an interest in a nice dog, will pet, spoil, order, and coax by turns. The collie is put forward as the most wonderful exhibition of dog breaking, but the author has rarely seen a collie take the order to come to heel, or to go home, when a stranger approaches the shepherd’s house. The good sheep-dog has a duty to perform that he likes, and he does it well, but ask him to do anything besides, and he objects, and gets his way. The spaniel’s business is the most taxing of all, and requires the best breaking, except when the retriever is broken to do spaniel’s duty as well as his own, as he can. That is to say, he can find live rabbits in their seats and turn them out to the gun, and stand still as they go. This is far more of a tax on any dog than steadiness in pointing, when the breaker turns out the pointed game. The turning out often amounts to an attempt to catch a rabbit in its seat; and the instantaneous stop when the creature moves is, as nearly as may be, the exercise of the savage impulse with the civilised control in mid career.

Perfect hand breaking of the retriever includes fetching and finding inanimate objects, dropping to order, remaining down for any length of time, coming to order, hunting in any direction indicated by the breaker, not only to right and left as desired, but far or near as bidden. All these teachings will come naturally to a man fond of dogs, just as a nurse fond of children will make them do anything without any book of rules. Consequently, the only point necessary to insist upon is the utmost quickness of obedience in all things. This is got by surprise orders at moments and in situations when the dog cannot help but obey, and by an economy of orders, so that the pupil never gets tired. The quickness in returning with a retrieved object is usually learnt by means of the breaker starting to run away as soon as the object is lifted. By means of this trick, and never boring the pupil with too much work in his play-time, as going out with his breaker should be to him, any dog can be taught to return on the instant; and a good education in this point has much influence on a retriever’s softness of mouth. By this coaching he will be brought to do things instinctively, and when he comes to game he will then have no time to stop to select the best grasp, but he will come at full gallop, whatever his first hold of his game may be, and when this is the case he never will grow hard-mouthed. Consequently, your hand breaking goes _half-way_ to make the mouth.

ENTERING ON GAME

It is said to be a good way to show a retriever heaps of game running about while he is at heel. No doubt this is true, but not before he has learnt to retrieve running game. To make a retriever steady before he wants to be wild is easy enough; but it is not teaching self-control, and is educating the dog to _ignore_ game just as he should sheep. Consequently, it is best, as soon as the young dog is perfectly hand broken, at six or eight months old, to give him some line hunting after living game. This will increase his fondness of hunting, and give him an inclination to go for all the game he sees, so that he will gain self-control with every head of game he does not chase.

The author used to believe that a drag was good exercise in line hunting: it may serve to start a puppy, but he will hunt the man and not the dead game. There are objections to most methods of teaching rode hunting, but the author’s plan serves at least three useful purposes. First of all, and most important is the use of a bird that is not easily bitten or hurt, so that no damage is done to the dog’s mouth, or to the tame and wing-cut wild duck, for this is the bird used. The duck is taken away from its pond, and turned down in a meadow, when it will head towards its home, creeping as much out of sight as possible. In the grass it will prove very easy to rode up to, and that is wanted for a young dog. Later it can be made quite difficult enough over fallow, or anywhere, by giving lots of law. Then in a shallow pond the duck is an education to the water-dog. Almost every dog will take water provided he can touch bottom and there be a match for a duck, but many dogs object to swimming. Nevertheless, if there is only one small spot in the pond which the retriever cannot wade, the duck will find this out very quickly, and will, by degrees, tempt in the dog out of his depth. He will soon learn to dive after the duck, too, and in fact become a first-rate water-dog without having a shot fired over him.

The duck let off in a turnip-field will be a great lesson, for at first turnip leaves and the innumerable small birds and other creatures in turnips, especially rabbits and thrushes before the shooting season, bother a youngster even more than the absence of much scent of the game to be retrieved.

After this course the puppy will be quite ready to take the field, and will probably get the first running partridge or grouse he is sent after, and do it as quickly and well as an old dog.

The author never made his retrievers drop to shot, but no doubt it steadies the nervous and keeps down excitement to do it. If it is approved, the hand-breaking time is best for its teaching, and it should become habit, as if instinctive. Then, in the field, it can gradually be forgotten; but long after a dog ceases to drop to shot he will retain an impulse to do so, and as this will be an exactly contrary impulse to that of running in, it will save many a whipping. However, a dog is not broken if he is only safe when lying down; for it is really putting him out of temptation.

THE LABRADOR RETRIEVER

Recently there has been a great revival in numbers of the close and thick coated, featherless dogs called Labrador retrievers. Their ancestors, or some of them, were, as the name implies, originally imported from Labrador. They were not Newfoundlands when first brought over any more than they are now. But it is rather difficult to say which sportsmen had one sort and which the other when both first began to be used for sporting purposes, or to be crossed with setters and water spaniels, to make the ancestors of our present races of retrievers. The Labrador, as we know him now, probably had no setter or spaniel for ancestor, and there is every reason to believe that the Lord Malmesbury of the _Diary_, and later the Duke of Buccleuch and Sir R. Graham’s family, maintained the breed in its original form. But probably in-breeding told the usual story: a cross had to be resorted to, because the dogs were getting soft, and one cross was introduced at Netherby, and of all strains to select for a cross one would think that chosen the worst. It was a keeper’s night-dog that was chosen.

It has been said that Mr. Shirley’s original strain and also Zelstone of Mr. Farquharson’s strain were descended from Labradors. This is probably not quite correct. Their coats did not indicate this blood, but that of the Newfoundland.

The latter’s was always a long, loose, wavy coat with more or less tendency to feather; the Labrador had no more feather than a pointer, but a thick close coat with little or no wave. There is no doubt the purest blood has come from the Duke of Buccleuch’s kennel of late years, but the author would not like to affirm that crossings between that and the Netherby kennel did not introduce the night-dog cross into the whole of the race. The short round heads and wide jaw-bones in these dogs seem to bear physical witness to ancestry competent to take care of itself. This statement of a fact is not intended to carry a slur with it, for it may be said that the big shooter and enthusiastic dog man who found out these particulars, and gave me the modern history of the breed, has himself used the Labrador recently as a revival to his flat-coated strain of retrievers.

Judged from the point of view of an admirer of a good flat-coated retriever, the present race of Labrador dogs appear common. But it would be altogether wrong to say definitely that they are so. Make and shape is very much a question of fashion and taste, and when a certain section of the population can admire the bulldog it is not within the province of anybody to lay down the law as to what is canine beauty. At any rate, they have one great point seldom observed in the flat-coated dogs. Their loins are usually strong enough to enable them to be active. A dog with a loin too small for his weight may be fast, but he never can be active, and as one might expect from this formation the Labradors are remarkably quick in their movements.

Mr. Holland Hibbert has a big kennel of these dogs, and has exhibited their work at the retriever trials two seasons. His Munden Single was given first beauty prize at the 1905 trials, and was placed for looks over the heads of some very good specimens of the flat-coated sort. Still, it is not supposed that breeders of the flat-coated sort are likely to try to breed their dogs to the model then set up; and the author has always regretted the giving of beauty prizes at field trials. We go to these meetings to learn from Nature what form she chooses shall embrace and contain her best internal handiwork. Having found that out with much expenditure of time and trouble, we must needs read Nature a lecture before we separate, and instruct her what form she _ought to have chosen_ for her best. We do not hold a mirror, but a model, up to Nature, and seem surprised she does not adopt the work of our creations as her best. This is surely all wrong, for it was obviously the selection of the best workers for hundreds of generations that evolved the forms that we call setters, pointers, and spaniels, and made them different from any other dogs, but did _not_ make them like show dogs of the present time. If the latter had been the most fit form for the work to be done, it would assuredly have been evolved by the selection of the best workers.

On these grounds, it seems to be unwise to place on a pedestal for imitation and admiration the Labrador that was beaten.

If Darwinism has a spark of truth in it, selection of the fittest for the acts of life has evolved every form in the world except just the trivialities, the abnormalities, and distortions that man has bred as a fancy, not to improve, but only to alter. Fancy poultry has been one of the chief fields for fancy operations in breeding, but, amongst all the new forms and characters produced, there is only one that would survive a state of nature for a couple of generations. That one is the old English game fowl, which was evolved, not by fancy selection, but by fighting—that is, by the most severe and discriminating form of selection and survival of the fittest.

Just in the same way will the forms of gun-dogs take care of themselves, provided selection of the fittest for work is severe enough. The pointer and setter trials have neglected stamina. If they had not done so, our working setters would have had backs like iron bars, as theirs have in America, where stamina has been the first consideration at field trials.

When Mr. Holland Hibbert ran Munden Single, the Labrador, in the 1904 retriever trials, there is not much doubt she would have been high up in the prize list had it not been that the last runner she got was brought back dead. It was a wing-tipped cock pheasant that Single roded out and then chased. But the cock could almost beat the dog by the help of its wings, and no doubt the Labrador was pretty much blown when she got hold. Then she had to cross a brook to get back, and it is likely enough that a stumble, or perhaps jumping against the bank, led to the pinching of the bird. However, excuses are not admitted in public competitions, and indeed none was made. In 1905, Single appeared to be quite tender in the mouth, and although she is admirably broken, and has no excitement or nervousness, but lots of love of the game, she was not as fortunate in her opportunities as had been the case the year before, and got no prize for work although she has lots of merit. Another Labrador at this meeting got a certificate of merit, so that, as only three entries have been made all told at retriever trials, the breed has taken a much better position with spectators than is indicated by its want of success in gaining stake money.