Short, hard notes on breaking a retriever, from the man whose Riverside kennel dominated the breed for half a century.
H. Reginald Cooke was a stockbroker who bred flat-coats at Riverside and kept his kennel journals for nearly fifty years. Retrievers - Short Notes on General Management, Keeping, Breeding and Maintaining your Retriever is exactly what its title promises: the choice of puppy, size and symmetry, the age at which to begin breaking, the tackle, the early lessons, walking at heel, dropping and staying dropped, the first lessons in retrieving, the first walks with the gun, the gun-shy puppy, the introduction to game.
It is written from the shooting field rather than the show bench, in the clipped, practical voice of a man who had done it several hundred times.
This edition features:
- Practical notes on breaking a retriever, from choice of puppy to the first walk with the gun
- Written by the owner of Riverside, the dominant flat-coat kennel of its era
- Short chapters made for reference in the kennel, not the armchair
- A companion to the author's A Few More Short Notes on Retrievers