Short Notes on Choosing and Breaking a Retriever

By H. Reginald Cooke

This book contains a classic guide to rearing a retriever to be an efficient gun dog, with chapters on selection, breeding, breaking, training, etc. Written in simple, plan language and full of handy tips, this timeless guide will be of considerable utility to modern hunters, breeders, and owners alike. Contents include: “Choice of Puppy”, “Size and Symmetry”, “Best Sex”, “Early Days”, “Age to Begin Breaking”, “Breaking Tackle”, “Early Lessons”, “Waling at Heel”, “Dropping”, “Staying at the Drop”, “First Lessons in Retrieving”, “Education Up-To-Date”, “First Walks with the Gun”, “Gun-Shy Puppy”, “Introduction to Game”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on dog breeding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vintage Dog Books
• Release date: Feb 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528784856

Book preview

SHORT NOTES

ON

CHOOSING and BREAKING a RETRIEVER

By H. REGINALD COOKE

Copyright © 2017 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

DOG BREEDING

For every longing dame select some happy paramour;

To him alone in leagues connubial join.

Consider well his lineage; what his fathers did of old,

Chiefs of the pack, and first to climb the rock,

Or plunge into the deep, or tread the brake

With thorn sharp-pointed, plashed, and briars inwoven.

Observe with care his shape, sort, colour, size.

Nor will sagacious huntsmen less regard his inward habits.

William Somerville – The Chase (1735).

As with humans, a dog is not always the product of its immediate parents but also that of the lineage of generations of earlier ancestors. Pedigree is of great importance to any serious breeder of dogs, whether they be for exhibition or work. Just because the sire and dam of a litter of puppies are both champions in their chosen field – it does not mean that every puppy in that litter will achieve the same. It is not possible