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CHAPTER XV.

Maximum and Minimum of Work in Training-First Preparation of the overfed Dog; of the Bitch in Season-Modes of Reducing Fat-Directions for Feeding-Private Trials-Final Preparation-Management at Meetings and after Running-Receipts for Cordials.

MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM OF WORK IN TRAINING.

Soon after the publication of the first edition of The Greyhound,' an opinion was very generally expressed by coursers that the amount of work directed by me was too great, and that many greyhounds would be ruined by following out strictly the rules which I had laid down. Mr. Temple was particularly strong in his censures, and indeed may be said to have originated the exaggerated idea which was formed of them. At his instigation, I believe, Mr. Welsh obtained from six celebrated public coursers accounts of the mode of training adopted by each, and published them in the sixteenth volume of 'Thacker's Annual,' whether with or without the knowledge and consent of the writers is a matter of no importance to my present purpose. Suffice it that they were published, and that the experience of these gentlemen, however gained, will always be of the utmost value to the young courser. I am not going to follow Mr. Welsh's example, and insert these letters without authority, much as I should like to do so; but I cannot resist

the temptation to refer to Mr. Jones' letter, in which he states that Amos (his experienced trainer) calculates that "Jael's" work averaged thirty miles a day' when in training for the Wiltshire downs, where she ran remarkably well. Now the utmost distance that I ever advised is as follows: For the first ten days or a fortnight the dogs should have three days a week from fifteen to twenty-five miles a day of fast work, following a man on horseback, trotting one-half, galloping at best pace a mile and a half or two miles, and walking the remainder. As much as possible of this should be upon turf, as the more the feet are saved the better. After this work on the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the dogs should be well washed from dirt, and then dried with a cloth, &c. On the Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, they should be taken out by the trainer on foot, accompanied by a man or boy who is a stranger to them. They may be suffered to play about in the fields for an hour, taking care that they do not stand or lie down. This should be done on the way to good training ground, which should be a hill side of at least half a mile long, or as much more as practicable, and of good grass if possible; but if the dog is to run over arable land, then of land of a similar quality. The assistant, when near the foot of the hill, should take up all the dogs, and running a stirrup leather through the ends of the leading straps, buckle it round his waist, for fear of their snatching themselves out of his hands, and also in order to leave both his hands at liberty to unloose their straps. The trainer should then walk briskly up the hill, pursuing the same course which he intends the dogs to follow, and when arrived at half a

mile off or more, if they still see him, should commence shouting and whistling to the dogs. Upon this the assistant should let loose the one which is the most lively, and inclined to run to the trainer, when he will immediately exert all his powers to run up to his master. The other dogs should be one at a time let loose, &c.

When the nature of the ground will admit of it, it answers well for the trainer to be on a pony, and gallop off up the hill as soon as the dogs get good sight of him, &c. After the trainer has carried their exercise as far as he thinks right, the dogs should be walked back to kennel,' &c. . . . In these extracts are embodied the whole of the directions which I gave for regulating the amount of work, and although I confess that subsequent experience has convinced me that there are some breeds which will not stand this extent of work, especially if the dogs have been allowed to lie idle all the summer, yet that there are others in which it will be borne with the greatest advantage; and in this view I am supported in particular by Mr. Jones' letter published by Mr. Welsh, and generally by all the other five, though not certainly to the same extent. Many large stakes have been won by dogs either wholly untrained or only partially so; but, on the other hand, it would be difficult to say how many have been lost for the want of a sufficient preparation. Even at Altcar it is seldom that a large stake is won without a severe course or two in going through it, and every one must remember instances in which all chance of the stake has been lost by the best dog in it from this cause. I do not contend that any preparation will entirely do away with this element of risk, but that it will greatly

reduce its extent no courser of experience will dispute. The principle is clear enough which should regulate the amount of work-namely, to carry it out to such an extent as to reduce superfluous flesh, and improve the wind and stamina, without at the same time making the dog slow or slack, and carefully avoiding the injurious effect which is so well known as 'over marking.' To do this requires the practised eye of the trainer, and indeed there are very few men who can be trusted fully to alter the amount of work according to circumstances. I have myself had dogs brought out to perfection by the same man who, with another lot, differently bred, trained them to death's door. With regard to the use of a horse in training, there can be no doubt that it can be dispensed with if the trainer is an active man and can walk from sixteen to twenty miles on end. But there are few who both can and will do this, and hence I prefer the use of the horse, which few trainers are industrious enough to eschew. Slow roadwork I am satisfied does good in every way, hardening the feet, strengthening the nails, and in this way preventing many of the accidents likely to occur in the coursing field. Fast roadwork, that is, carried to the extent of galloping, will injure the speed; but a steady trot has no such effect, as is proved by the fact that 'Barrator' was trained by Mr. Briggs entirely in this way, and that Mr. Dixon's flyers, Deacon' and 'Dalton,' did most of their work on the road. No doubt if a greyhound is confined to his kennel, or to a small grass paddock, for months, during which his feet become unaccustomed to friction, he will be made. footsore, and his muscles shaken, by at once putting him to

travel long distances on the road. This would be an abuse of the plan, and not the proper use of it, and no one but a tyro would dream of such a practice. If a man has only four or five dogs in training, he can manage to bring them out well enough for any country without a horse, but if he has more it will be better to find him one; and the extra cost incurred, which need not be more than from ten to fifteen shillings per week, will be reimbursed by the superior success of his dogs, if they are intrinsically good. No training will make a bad greyhound into a good one; and unless a man has a prospect of possessing the right sort of stuff, he may as well keep down his expenses, but if it appears that his dogs are worth the outlay, no expense should be spared.

FIRST PREPARATION OF THE OVERFED DOG.

In the directions which I have given for rearing the puppy, he has been kept in a state which renders him always fit to go into severe work. A fortnight or three weeks' final preparation is all that he requires even for the most severe country, and a week or ten days ought to fit him for average coursing. But the majority of puppies are not thus taken care of. Instead of being only from four or five pounds too heavy, they are ten or fifteen pounds above their proper running weight, and being loaded with fat inside, they would be permanently injured if they were put either to fast work in training, or allowed to run a course. Such a dog is generally in every way unprepared for running, the