H. W. Carlton - Spaniels: Their Breaking and Training for Sport and Field Trials

SPANIELS

1899 IDEALS OF INTERNATIONAL GUNDOG LEAGUE SPORTING SPANIEL SOCIETY

THEIR BREAKING FOR SPORT
AND FIELD TRIALS.

BY

H. W. CARLTON.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

W. ARKWRIGHT.

Third (Revised) Edition.

1ST EDITION... March, 1915.
2ND EDITION... March, 1921.
3RD EDITION... October, 1922.

THE honour of holding the first Field Trials for Spaniels, in January, 1899, rests with the Sporting Spaniel Society. Their example has been followed to such purpose that during last season no less than eight spaniel field trial meetings were held. The hoped-for result has come to pass. Methods have been evolved by which a spaniels effectiveness in the field, as a general purpose dog, has been increased and his work improved.

Despite this, no book dealing with the breaking of the spaniel on modern lines has been published during these fifteen years.

No apology for a book on spaniels is therefore necessary. The deficiencies of this particular book must be set down, by the charitable, to the fact that it is an attempt to break somewhat fresh ground. It is not suggested that the several methods herein indicated are the only or possibly the best means of teaching a spaniel his many duties; they have, however, all passed the test of experience.

My warmest thanks are due to Mr. W. Arkwright, of Sutton Scarsdaleto whose initiative and support the spaniel as a gundog owes so muchnot only for his introduction, but also for valuable suggestions on the subject-matter of other parts of the book and his permission to reproduce the picture in the frontispiece.

May, 1914.

THE demand for a third edition following so soon after the reprint of March, 1921, has emboldened me to take a further step along a way hitherto untrodden, and introduce an entirely fresh chapter upon the psychology of the dog as bearing upon dog-breaking in general. It skirts the eternal question Do animals reason? and it seems that even if the dog is incapable of explaining the Why and Wherefore of its actions, this is no good reason why the breaker of the dog should be left in like case; it is hoped that the chapter may give the breaker some clues that up to now have been lacking.

Further than this, dog sense is generally held to be the attribute that specially distinguishes the good from the bad breaker, and has been set down as purely intuitive. Consisting, howeveras it would appear mainly to doof an appreciation of the working of the dog mind, it is hoped that this additional chapter may in some sort provide a substitute for intuition in the case of those who are lacking in it.

The original text has also been revised, and such additions made as the intervening years experience and talks with fellow-breakers have suggested. The preliminary notes to .

Lubenham, Market Harborough.

September, 1922.

I AM highly pleased at having been asked to write an introduction to this book of Mr. Carltons, because I consider it so thorough a book. But at the same time I am painfully aware that its very thoroughness creates my difficulty. What is there left to me to write about except the zeal and ability of the authoralthough a panegyric in this place would hardly give him pleasure, besides being not quite to the purpose?

To gain time for myself, I will draw attention to the rather obvious fact that Mr. Carltons work fills a gap in gundog literature; for it is, I believe, the only one that has ever been devoted in its entirety to the breakingto the education of the spaniel. Now this seems all the more remarkable since the spaniel is the most ancient of our gundogs, and is undoubtedly the one most generally useful to the sportsmanbeing able to understudy, on an emergency, all the other members of the family, be they pointers, setters, or retrievers, while none of these can return the compliment.

In the past, therefore, it has been a reproach to English sportsmen that there did not exist an exhaustive treatise on the art of spaniel-breaking; and it is certainly a feather in the cap of the Author that he should be the pioneer in dealing seriously with an important subject. Again, not only does he busy himself with the breaking of the dogs, but also (which is far more important) he includes in his scope the breaking of the would-be spaniel-breaker himself! In short, that which has been done for the other breeds by various writers in many pamphlets, retrievers especially having a little library to themselves, Mr. Carlton seems to have succeeded in condensing into a single volume. A condensation that ought to be peculiarly seasonable in view of a newborn disposition of the community to include among its pastimes, along with its golf and its bridge, the personal training of gundogs for public trials.

But stay! While I am extolling the universal qualities of these spaniel-breaking essays, the idea strikes me that perhaps they may not start quite early enough in the spaniels career. How about choosing the puppy that is to share with one in the application of all these well-reasoned maxims? Will not this subject allow me to introduce a few theories of my own? I think soeven if I have to apologise for descending to rather homely levels.

Bearing in mind the French proverb that Bon chien chasse de Racei.e., the good dog comes from hunting stockand also remembering that Frenchmen are masters of precept, much must depend on getting a likely pup to start with.

First, then, as to the pups actual pedigree, he should have a first-rate dam: one that excels in natural talentone, if possible, that is the favourite shooting-companion of her master. His sires excellencies there is not quite so much necessity to investigate: for one reason, because the owner of a good bitch will almost certainly have exercised care in her mating.