Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training
    Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training
    Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training
    Ebook140 pages2 hours

    Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training

    By Horace Lytle

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This vintage book contains a complete guide to training a dog for hunting birds, with chapters on selection and breeding, breaking, psychology, equipment, and much more. Interspersed with personal anecdotes, this highly-readable handbook will appeal to modern hunters, and it would make for a worthy addition to collections of vintage sporting literature. Contents include: "First Days in the Field", "Getting on Game", "Gun-Shyness and Retrieving", "Hunting Quail and Pheasants", "A Successful Pheasant Hunt", "Wonderful Work", "Steadying to Shot and Wing", "A Little Canine Psychology", "Further Facts and Anecdotes", "Finishing Touches", "Things to be Aware Of", etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in a modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on gun dogs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Country Books
    Release dateOct 6, 2017
    ISBN9781473343450
    Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training

    Related to Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training

    Related ebooks

    Shooting & Hunting For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      On Point

      Jul 4, 2021

      On Point
      6 min read

    • Article

      Getting To The Point

      May 13, 2020

      Getting To The Point
      3 min read

    • Article

      Breaking The Mould

      Oct 27, 2021

      Breaking The Mould
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dogs And Myths Spun

      Mar 3, 2020

      Dogs And Myths Spun
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Bit Of This And That

      Jun 17, 2020

      A Bit Of This And That
      4 min read

    • Article

      Sporting Answers

      Nov 9, 2022

      Sporting Answers
      7 min read

    • Article

      You Call That A GUNDOG?

      Mar 26, 2020

      You Call That A GUNDOG?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Challenging Chital

      Aug 9, 2021

      Challenging Chital
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Field From The Archives

      Mar 11, 2021

      SO much has been written of late years for and against the spaniel as an aid to the gun, that the following remarks may be of interest to shooting men who are the sworn friends of one or other of the merry spaniel family. The modern spaniel may have

      4 min read

    • Article

      Outfoxing The Fox

      Sep 7, 2020

      ONE of the most leisurely and yet rewarding sports is that of fox whistling, because you must be able to outwit your quarry who is naturally very wary. Reynard, the fox figures prominently in the legends and folklore of Europe and is specially lauded

      6 min read

    • Article

      What Makes The Best All-rounder?

      Apr 21, 2021

      What Makes The Best All-rounder?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Be One With Nature

      Dec 1, 2022

      Be One With Nature
      6 min read

    • Article

      Taken Down A Peg

      Mar 11, 2020

      Taken Down A Peg
      3 min read

    • Article

      Masters Of The Moor

      Aug 17, 2022

      Masters Of The Moor
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Sniff Of Success

      Jul 11, 2023

      The Sniff Of Success
      3 min read

    • Article

      Being A Bowhunter

      Sep 1, 2022

      Being A Bowhunter
      6 min read

    • Article

      Fox In The Henhouse?

      Mar 13, 2020

      Fox In The Henhouse?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Tough It Out

      Oct 13, 2020

      Tough It Out
      5 min read

    • Article

      Field Guide

      Dec 18, 2023

      Field Guide
      2 min read

    • Article

      Black, Red Or Goldie?

      Oct 6, 2021

      Black, Red Or Goldie?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Being An Honest Shot

      Nov 9, 2022

      Being An Honest Shot
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training

    3/5

    1 rating1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I liked the book. I felt it was very informative. I enjoyed the way the author brought me along on his journey of training his dog. I follow much of the same theories off training one's dog through patience and understanding. I have tried many of the methods used by the author. As an owner of 5 Weimaraners, some of the procedures used don't always work on some of my dogs. I wish I was able to communicate with the author regarding some of these issues. The only problem being that the book was written on the early 1900's... I don't believe the author would be still around to this day.

    Book preview

    Breaking a Bird Dog - A Treatise on Training - Horace Lytle

    BREAKING A BIRD DOG

    CHAPTER I

    FIRST DAYS IN THE FIELD

    ON a certain well-remembered day in February of 1922 the writer came into possession of a little Red Setter which is to become the subject around which the chief messages in this book revolve. She was at that time just past six months old and in her veins flows Irish Setter Blood as pure as can be found anywhere that Bird Dogs are bred. This puppy was registered as Smada Byrd and it wasn’t long before she had found her way into all hearts in my home. She was an interesting little thing, full of fun and frolic, and I venture to predict that but seldom has any dog ever merited or achieved more love than we gave her.

    But Smada Byrd was not to be an ornament—she was to be a field dog, unless my plans should miscarry, and that meant that she had her work to do and must learn her lessons in preparation.

    Then one day bad news came suddenly to cause us grief—little Byrd had been exposed to distemper and would surely come down with it. There followed the trying siege of bringing her through, the effort ultimately being crowned with success, and she became herself again. It required several months for her to regain her strength and health, the process being helped materially by plenty of fresh air and sunshine. Hours at a time she spent just playing with my little boy, romping in the fields about my home.

    Finally, one day—so swiftly does time fly—it came to me almost as a shock that the Illinois quail season was not far off; and I had been invited to join a party there. It was, in fact, well into September and not a thing had been done toward Byrd’s training. Less than sixty days remained in which to bring the little dog to a point where she would be of some real service in the field. And still I hesitated to send her away to a trainer. I simply couldn’t seem to bring myself to it—so surely had the puppy by that time become almost one of the family that we just felt we couldn’t spare her. Yet I was exceedingly busy at the office and very much inclined to feel that to send her away was the only solution to the problem.

    Why in thunder don’t you break her yourself? The question was put to me point-blank one day by Harvey King, with the bluntness that sometimes characterizes that splendid sportsman and artist who loves so well to paint real bird dogs in action or in any poses peculiar to the breed.

    My first inclination was to say I hadn’t time. We are apt to get into the habit these days of thinking we haven’t time for things. But Mr. King scoffed at the idea. When I was a young man, he said, "I wouldn’t think of having one of my dogs trained by some one else—never cared a whit for one that I didn’t train myself. You can train your little setter—why don’t you do it? You’ll never be half so satisfied with her unless you do. You young fellows these days give me a pain with all your rush and artificiality!"

    The taunt in his voice was as a challenge from other days to the younger generation, and I never yet have let a challenge pass unnoticed. I decided then and there to take the time to break the little bitch. Instead of regretting it—I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world. It reawakened many memories, and, more than that, I found it so much fun that I have ever since been taking most of my recreation with the dogs. I still work Byrd regularly, except during the season when the quail are paired out, and have since trained two of her puppies as well as countless other dogs both for myself and others. But all this is another story—to be taken up at some later time.

    I already knew, and also soon located other places, where quail could be found—for although this greatest of all game birds is now in disgrace in Ohio, and has been demoted from his once proud position of peerage to a very tame and undignified rating as a song bird, still there is, as yet, no restriction against making him fly. I hope that before this book has ceased entirely to sell there will be another story to tell so far as the Buckeye State is concerned in this respect—and I believe it will be so. My dictionary classifies quail as a game bird; but the statesmen of Ohio have decreed that he is but an idle singer of songs. Be that as it may, I broke my bird dog on quail—and they didn’t smell like song birds to her.

    I shall never quite forget just how I felt returning from the fields with Byrd after that memorable first day of her training. It seemed as though little or nothing at all had been accomplished. She had not sensed even remotely just what the idea seemed to be. I was the personification of discouragement and despair. I may as well say right here that it was only after a great number of trips afield that I was given the right even to hope for eventually successful results. Of course, I’m putting this pretty strong—but the point is, I want all amateurs who read this book to guard against being too easily discouraged in the early stages. One of the chief reasons for this was that, although of the bluest blood lines, neither Byrd’s father nor mother were ever hunted. Thus there was a dead generation behind her which I had to combat. It was a very noticeable contrast to Byrd’s own puppies, all of which have been keen to hunt almost from the day they were whelped. Certain it is that all the little rascals of her first litter were birdier at five months than their mother was at fifteen. But again I digress.

    To help out in the work I took along a very fine Pointer for which I had formed a great fondness, having hunted over him the season before in Illinois. We had not been out so very long before Old Ned made a characteristic and beautiful stand and I decided not to put the check cord on Byrd, but rather let her come up to him and see what, if any, attention she would pay to his pose; and what, if anything, she would do. We were not long in doubt. She went right on past him as if nothing at all were indicated by Ned’s statuesque stand. Every which way the birds flew when she flushed them. The sad part of it to me was that she seemed not at all to realize what she had done. In fact, she appeared scarcely to notice the quail at all. That is what cut me to the

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1