GUN-DOG TRAINING: POINTING DOGS. By Kenneth C. Roebuck.

1983 1st edition. 8vo (140 x 216mm). Pp183. B/w photographs, illustrations. Brown boards, spine and upper board titled in black.

"Solid, practical advice on the care and training of all pointing breeds. This book gives your puppy the right start with sound basics in the first formative weeks of training and then moves on to more advanced lessons, including quartering, staunchness and steadiness to wing and shot". Chapters include: Selecting your dog - choice of breed, picking a puppy, considering a trained dog, feeding, humanising; Choice of housing - your home or a kennel, house training, making or buying a dog run, building a doghouse; Equipment - training-kit list, the check line, the quail call-back pen, electronic training devices; Starting right - the psychological approach, list of commands, first points, the leash and walking to heel, the recall, introduction to the gun, introduction to water; Initial training - observations on steadiness, when to start, the 'whoa' command and stoping to whistle, quartering, retrieving dummies, steadiness to shot; Faults - fear of the gun, hard mouth, retrieve problems and forced training, blinking, flagging on point; Use of birds in training - quail and chukar partridge, pigeons, pheasants, bird planting and release cages; Advanced training - pointing and staunchness, steadiness to wing, retrieving birds, backing another dog, the 'sit' and the 'down', retrieving from water; Hunting your dog - first trips afield, working dogs at a shooting preserve.