This butterfly has woken after its winter hibernation in a corner of my house.
The two bronze pointers look on impassively. It's a characteristic of all living things that they
react to stimuli and this butterfly's behavior has been triggered by the increase in day length
and the rise in temperature that comes with the spring. These puppies have had their predatory
instincts aroused by the sight of another fluttering butterfly. The game of chase has
a function in teaching them how to use their bodies. It awakens their senses and hones their
reflexes. That's Blackie and Henry in the background. There's Erin on the left and Solo.
The older dogs enjoy chase when they're out at exercise too. This time it's the
swallows that run the gauntlet.
But the dogs know when to be serious. When they're out hunting,
their minds are on game and the swallows are forgotten.
The swallows fly all the way from Africa to nest in my kennels. Although they're flying
in and out every few minutes just inches above the dogs heads, the dogs don't pay them much
attention. So the dogs behavior will be governed by the situation. They chase the swallows out in
the field, ignore them when they're hunting and pay them little attention in the kennels. So if
you want your dogs to respond, don't forget to vary the training location. We can learn a lot
just by watching dogs. We don't always understand what's going on, but often we can use the natural
tendency of the dogs. Here Henry, the eight months old puppy, seems to enjoy rolling over and allowing
Sandy, an 11 year old, to sniff him all over. And then he does a bit of sniffing on his own account.
We don't know why this happens, but it's behavior that we can use.
In Britain trainers have been controlling dogs with the sit for many hundreds of years. If you
put a dog in the flat down position you have it under complete control because it can't do anything.
So our dogs have been bred to be rather sensitive to accept this form of suppression.
There are many similarities between the work and training of sheepdogs and the work and training
of pointing dogs. The stalk of a sheepdog is very similar to the point of a pointing dog. And notice
how the handler is using the sit to control his dog. The sheepdog's natural tendency is to go
around the flock and try and stop it escaping. And this is controlled by training so the dog
will move either clockwise or anti-clockwise, closer to the flock or further away. The number
of commands seems to be very confusing, but there are in fact just a few basic commands and an
infinite variety of gray areas between those commands. In this way the dog can be controlled
with great delicacy and finesse. That's a wild goose. Pat McEtychon who's handling these dogs
picked the goose up as a cosling on the road and he put it in amongst his Indian runner ducks that
he uses to train his dogs. So the goose now thinks it's a duck. Pat's handling five sheepdogs in an
attempt to drive the Indian runner ducks through his outstretched legs. The ducks move off when
the dog comes within what is called an escape distance. They don't feel comfortable with a
dog that close so they move off in an attempt to increase what is called the escape distance.
There's a parallel here with the work of a pointing dog. The pointing dog will locate
game by the air scent and it can only do this if it comes within the scenting distance. If the
escape distance is greater than the scenting distance then the bird will fly off. This is
why it's always a good idea to give a young dog the benefit of working on birds which are more
inclined to lie to a point. In other words we train on paired birds in the spring and on broods
during the summer and then gradually increase the degree of difficulty so that the dog learns to
handle the birds as they become wilder. Now look at the most distant dog here. See the saliva
dripping from his lips. There's no doubt at all what's going through his mind. And he's done it.
And now that's all over the goose comes back. Although he thinks he's a duck the wild ancestry
decrees that he has a larger escape distance than the ducks and so he flies off to avoid
a confrontation with dogs and humans. And just to show that these dogs are not just circus
performers there they are in their everyday work of working a flock of sheep on the farm. I'm sad
to say that since this film was made Pat McGettigan died of a heart attack. I lost a good friend and
Scotland certainly lost a very good sheepdog handler and trainer. If you remember from the
pointing instinct we used the sit to control dogs at that critical moment just after birds
are flushed when they could conceivably chase. Here's a young dog that would like to do just
that. The bird's flushed he'd like to chase but the sit takes priority and we use the sit
just to control the dogs and bring them under subjection when we need to call them in or do
something else. The best age to teach a puppy to sit is probably about three or four months of age.
The first task is to get the puppy into the correct position and to show it that it is
perfectly safe and secure when it's down in the flat down sit position. That is flat down with
the chin on the ground. Notice how I'm using my left hand here to caress the puppy when it's in
the correct position and scratch its ears and I'm using my right hand with a check cord to just pull
the head back down when it tends to rise. There's no great mystery about a check cord it's just a
very strong piece of light cord with a running noose on the end. A dog should never be attacked
when it's in this position. This is safety and we want to make it feel comfortable and secure.
You'll proceed a lot faster with this job if you get the timing right. The dog only gets the reward
when it's in the correct position and the cord is tweaked to just for stall when it starts to
bring its head up and by keeping tension on the cord I can back off and start to use a hand signal.
It takes quite a lot of patience and persistence to train setters. Getting them to go down is
rather like pushing a cork down in a bucket of water but you get there in the end just kind
persistence and reward. The line of pointers I have are very very soft and you have to be
very careful not to upset them. I'm just steadying this one with light pressure with my knee and we
can see why it continues to bring its backside up from the ground because its feet were not in a
comfortable position and as soon as they're readjusted a little bit of stroking and the
puppy relaxes. The pointers seem to go into a sort of hypnotic trance. You'll notice that I continue
to repeat the command sit. This is so that the dog associates the word with the position. The
words used in dog training often do not follow human logic. They're used to convey a message
to the dog and see how this pup has woken up and is now ready for a game. This is a completely
different kettle of fish. This little pup is just a bundle of life and she's convinced that we're
having a good game here. But with gentleness and persistence even this pup can be taught to drop
in just a few minutes. When she's in the correct position she gets her ear scratched which is a
very very powerful tool. We'll try again. Get her into the correct position. Get to work on
those ears. This time I'll try a check cord. If you remember from the pointing instinct we can
do anything to puppies but we must stop when they squeak in pain. The rough games they have
will continue so long as one of the partners doesn't give a squeak and a couple of little
jerks on the check cord are sufficient to quieten this pup down. That's about as severe as you ever
need be. Notice when she tries to bring her head up just a quick tweak on the cord is enough to
stop the action. Now the next stage is to get the puppy to go down by itself in response to the
command. This puppy doesn't seem to want to get up. This is Penelope. She's a rather small
blue-eared setter bitch and she's not going to win any shows but I've always found that this
type of dog is extremely intelligent and usually very fast when they start to work. And I just
tweak the cord and as a concession she flops over as if she's pretending she's fallen over by mistake.
That's typical setter behavior. I could gently draw her back with the cord. There's no escape
and then a little jerk on the cord and the command and she decides she'll go down and when she does
she gets a bit of petting as a reward. And then we can gently start to introduce the
come here by very gently tightening up on the cord and bringing her in. Down she goes again. And
this gentle caressing is so relaxing she goes to sleep. Watch how I put the check cord on Erin.
As he comes bounding up to me for a bit of petting I pop the cord over his head and he
doesn't even know he's got it on. Erin's been rather neglected over the winter because the
weather's not suitable for dog training. Now I'm first of all going to take him through a few
lessons on the sit. You notice how the head keeps popping up. This is quite typical of the setters.
You may wonder why I'm insisting that the dog goes completely flat. That's because the early
training will get eroded slightly when the dog begins to work and it's better to have a dog
complying totally at this stage and then allow it to lift its head later on when there are other
more important things. You get it right at the beginning you have something to go back on. Now
I've started to come here. Although Erin will rush up to me out of friendliness he's got to learn to
come when he's told. I've just tightened up on the cord and he's fighting it. He's not unduly
distressed because you notice his tail is not tucked between his legs and when he comes in he
gets the usual petting. I'm just tightening up on the check cord I'm not hauling him in with it
just maintaining pressure and when he does come in towards me the pressure on the cord slackens
off a bit. The last few inches I can just pull him in with a scruff of the neck. The first thing
is to loosen the noose because sometimes it can snag in the long hair of a setter and then he gets
a brief petting. Try again. When I tighten the cord I am literally cutting his wind off. It's
not very comfortable but it doesn't cause any great pain. Try again and he comes in much quicker
this time. You notice that he seems quite relaxed when he's beside me. He's not a hundred percent
relaxed but we wouldn't expect that but he's certainly not in great stress. The time it takes
for him to come in shortens every time. And deliberately filming this is one sequence so
you can see how quickly the dog reacts if you do the training properly. Now he's going to try
another ploy. He thinks that perhaps if he sits down that will get him out of his difficulties.
This confusion between commands is quite a common thing in dogs. It's just a misunderstanding,
it's not disobedience and we have to exercise patience. Now from here on I'll keep a piece of
string in my pocket at all times and if he has ever any hesitation in coming I'll just put him
through a couple of these lessons. By repeatedly calling a dog to you and have him refuse the call
you are merely training him to ignore the call. Now we've got the the four pups that we saw earlier.
Now Henry is a bit confused. He knows how to drop and he knows how to come here but he can't tell
one from the other so we have to repeat repeat and I'll be using the two commands in the same
exercise. He knows to go to sit but then thinks that my body language stooping over although I'm
saying sit means he's to come here. If I go behind him he can't pick up on my body language and he
stays in the sit position. Look at Blackie, he's responded to the command although he's not the
one being taught. Now we give Blackie some lessons. He's much better at it and Henry in
the background is looking a bit unsure of himself. Whilst maintaining contact with Blackie with a
check cord I can get Henry to lie down and then Aaron. Penelope is doing her own thing but then
she's a bit of a character anyway. Some dogs have got a tendency to wander off from the drop as soon
as your back is turned and my trick to cure this is to drive a number of pegs in the ground on the
exercise field and then have a short cord which I can attach to the dog. This is just a short check
cord tied to the peg. Yes and that's what I thought was going to happen. I'll do this over
several days and then the dog will eventually be convinced that there's no point in trying to move
because he can't move. We've even got Penelope to sit.
Don't forget the ear scratch when they're in the correct position.
And sometimes when it looks as if you're losing you'd better just pretend you weren't fighting
the battle anyway. If you always treat your dogs with consideration you can do all sorts
of things to them. They trust you implicitly. Penelope rather likes being up here and it's
a great thing for a cold day. We all want what we can't have and we've been training our dogs
to retrieve by this method for a very long time indeed. What we're doing is awakening the dogs
predatory instincts. The old hat takes on the role of the fluttering butterfly. All we're doing at
this stage is encouraging the dog to learn that having an object in its mouth is pleasurable.
Henry is a passionate retriever. Blackie is not a natural retriever and the setters will be natural
retrievers although they're probably better on game. If you have to take an object out of a dog's
mouth just gently press its lip up against its teeth and push your hand in its mouth and prize
the jaws apart. It can be done very quickly and without causing any pain. Now I'm sharpening up
on Solo's sitting. I'll repeat repeat repeat until the actions become automatic. He's being told to
sit and then he's called to me, told to sit, called to me, told to sit, called to me and I'll go over
and over and over until he does it without even thinking about it. When you get your you can get
your dog to respond like this you can start to increase the distance and it becomes a sort of
game like the game of grandmother's footsteps we used to play when we were children. I'm doing
exactly the same thing here with Solo teasing him with the the old hat to get him to take it in his
mouth. Notice how he won't go down until I start to increase my height. So if you have a timid dog
that won't come to you, you can lower your height, you can stoop or even lie down on the ground.
The delivery of the dummy is very bad at this stage but I'll show you how to improve on that
later on. Here's a young bit, she's about 12 months old, the same as Solo and she prefers the
clean hat off my head to the dirty one that I'm asking her to retrieve and it's just a game. She
runs off with it in the hope that I'll chase her to try and take it away from her and because I
refuse to do that she brings it back. Whenever a puppy brings me some object in its mouth I
scratch its ears and I might very gently take the object from it and then immediately give it back.
I'm going to give Blackie some more exercises in the retrieving because he's been sold for
export and the new owner wants him to be partly trained when he leaves the country. A rolled-up
sock makes a great object to start a young dog on retrieving and I think the smelly ones make
the best. Here again I'm just encouraging him to pursue what appears to be the live object.
At this stage probably two or three retrieves are quite enough. The last thing we want to do
is to sicken him off retrieving. Now you see I'm scratching his ears because he has the object in
his mouth and he's brought it right up close to me. He's been encouraged to come up close for this
ear scratch and now he's got the object in his mouth. He gets the reward so long as he retains
a hold on the sock. If he drops the sock I immediately stop the ear scratch. So we have
him dropping perfectly. We'll hone up on that until it becomes absolutely automatic. We've
worked on his coming to call and now he's learned to pick up and bring back an object.
The next stage is to put all these behaviors together so that he will be held in the sit
position for a few moments when the object is thrown and then for his patience he'll be
allowed to run out pick it up and bring it back. Gradually over a few weeks with perhaps two or
three retrieves a day the retrieves will be made more and more difficult and he will be asked to
remain sitting for longer periods so he becomes more patient. You see here he's got the object
pushed right up towards me and he's had the ear scratch as a reward. A lot of trainers tell me
that they can't train their pointing dogs because they have no game. Well this season I find myself
in a similar position. I've had a bad rearing season and I haven't got many birds to spare to
train my dogs on so I'm going back to my good old standby of the pigeon. I have an arrangement
with a local grain processing company and I'm allowed to put my traps on the roof of their
warehouses. I can catch all the pigeons I need. If I wasn't able to do this I would form an alliance
with the local pest destroyer or perhaps with some local pigeon keeper. The pigeons are very useful
bird to train dogs on because they seem to have a gamey smell but don't try and fool old experienced
dogs. What we do is to dizzy them. We put the head under the wing and gently rock the bird to and
fro and then provided the bird is laid on the side that its wing is at its head is under it'll
remain like that for several minutes and as soon as the weight is taken off that side the head comes
out and the bird wants to fly. Don't forget that any dizzied bird has an escape distance of zero
so the dog can just walk up and pick it up so whenever using dizzied birds you must use a
check cord on the dog to stop it from getting hold of the bird. The correct way to plant pigeons
is to wipe them on the grass and then put them after you've dizzied them of course into a tuft
of grass. Here's Penelope she's a bit confused at being on the check cord and she wonders what
on earth is going on. I've got a long stick to wake the pigeon up I shall give it a gentle
poking and the pigeon is in just in front of the camera by that little yellow flower. The breeze
is going from the camera from the pigeon towards myself and the dog. Penelope doesn't seem to have
any idea that there's a pigeon there because she hasn't yet learnt to use her nose but look at the
transformation that takes place when she realises there's a bird there. And because she's got no
chance of catching the pigeon I can take the check cord off and let her chase. Unrewarded behaviour
will be abandoned. Rewarded behaviour will be continued. This is a pigeon launcher. The pigeon
is gently held in a fold of cloth and when a trigger is pulled the bird is thrust forcefully
up into the air. I'm not very fond of them because they make a rather loud noise which could frighten
a young puppy. Also a dog could get struck by one of the arms but worst of all they have to be
triggered by a long string which can get snagged by the dog and the pigeon can be released at the
wrong moment. And my foot has caught the string and the bird is gone. You can get radio controlled
pigeon releases and they might have some use. Back to the pups and let's see how we've progressed.
Now I'm deliberately tempting the dogs off the drop. They've been told to sit but I reduce my
height which is very attractive to them and the object here is to teach them that the sit must
take priority and I can use the check cord to control the pup at a distance. This time I've
got all the pups dragging check cords about four yards long. Penelope's got her head up. I can lift
her check cord, just give it a tweak and she knows she's got to go down. The trick to using
the check cord is to use it as sparingly as possible so that the dog is never quite sure
whether it has it on or not. Here I'm removing the check cords. The dogs are not even aware
what I'm doing and then because they behaved well we can have a bit of fun. I put my hat over my
face to stop my face getting licked. This is the young bitch again. We've sharpened up on her
dropping exercises and she's going down quite smartly. She's just got one small fold. She tends
to turn round to look behind her when I put her in the sit position as you'll see. She wants to see
what's going on behind. I can stop this very simply by making sure she's comfortable. She's
sitting properly and then with a small stick when she looks around I can just give her nose a light
tap. Don't forget that the dog must feel absolutely secure in the sit position and so a light tap is
all that's needed. I then tap the ground and wave the stick around her to convince her that it wasn't
the stick that caused the slight discomfort. She's still quite safe provided she stays flat down and
still. By using the hand signals quite frequently I can later dispense with the verbal commands and
I'll introduce whistle commands in exactly the same way. At first I'll use my mouth and then
I'll use a mechanical whistle. Every morning I have a ritual. As I have my cup of tea I load
the blank pistol. I'm using Turner Richard dummy launcher blanks. They're the long ones and they
give a tremendous bang. This is the moment the dogs await with great eagerness and by using a
shot to herald the beginning of their exercise period they regard the shot as something very
pleasurable. I also fire a couple of shots as I let the dogs out. They're not required to drop
the shot at this stage. Don't forget that it depended on the situation. When I'm teaching the
dogs to drop the shot I raise my hand just as if I'm giving the hand signal to sit and fire off
one of the short blanks. You must be very careful when introducing the shot that you don't introduce
any unpleasantness. I use three whistles, a silent whistle, a straight whistle and I have a referee's
whistle which I never use. The signals are fairly standard amongst pointer and set of trainers.
It's a long single blast for the drop and a series of short repetitive pips to call the dogs to you.
When you're calling dogs to you you can slightly reduce your height to encourage them to come in
or walk away, turn your back, walk away across their line of vision and they will think you're
going to leave the scene and they come much faster. Of course you never call a dog to you
and do anything unpleasant to it. Hugh Haggerty the falconer has brought his two-year-old German
wirehead pointer over to me because it's not pointing yet and he's getting a bit worried.
I've explained that I think we should get the dog pointing in 15 or 20 minutes. I don't think he
believes me. My technique to do this is to lay a line of dizzy pigeons about three or four meters
apart directly into the wind. So the wind will be blowing down the line of pigeons and in this case
is blowing into the camera lens. Joe, Hugh's partner is giving me a hand putting out the pigeons.
We dizzy them, rub them on the grass and then pop them in a tuft of grass with a weight on the
side that the head is under. It depends how you dizzy them. You get a bit of experience. You can
actually dizzy them so that they fly off almost immediately. Then the technique is to bring the dog up
to the first pigeon on the lead and to flush it using the stick in front of it. Now if he'll chase
just let him chase just drop the lead. Watch the dog's behavior. It's definitely rather curious
what's going on. He keeps looking back to Hugh for some sort of clue and his tail is wagging in a rather
haphazard manner. He pauses as the pigeon flies off and looks back for some sort of clue from the
human participants. Very gently and slowly we can move on to the next pigeon.
Look at the tail wagging now. It's wagging much faster. The dog seems to be more interested in
what's going on ahead although he still looks back occasionally for some clue from the humans.
Always take your time and take the initiative from the dog when using this technique.
It's what I call a process of realization. We want the dog to associate the scent with the bird
and to let him realize that he can discover the bird upwind by scent alone.
Everything's going smoothly. The dog is sniffing the ground where the pigeon was
and occasionally looks back to the humans or looks forward to where the pigeon flew off.
Don't forget to check the wind occasionally because the wind can change direction.
Now we're coming to pigeon number three.
The attitude of the dog is very different.
And he's on point. He's stiffened up and there's no doubt at all that he's pointing the pigeon.
Hugh still maintains control with the lead but
he has allowed a little bit of slackness in it so that the dog is definitely in command of the
situation and pointing. Hugh gently strokes him and talks to him to let him feel confident.
You could at this stage if your dog has been trained well enough get it to drop to wing
but that's not essential. We simply want to get the dog to point.
Now the dogs hold attitude as to what's going on.
The dog is now in control of the situation.
Now the dog is now in control of the situation. Now the dog's hold attitude has changed.
It's using its nose and it's hunting for game.
To get some idea how scent behaves we can like one of these plumbers smoke bombs
which are used for testing drains.
It's a cold still frosty day and there doesn't appear to be any wind at all.
Yet the smoke fans out from a point source into this cone
which gives some idea of why we talk about a scent cone.
On a windy day the situation is very much more haphazard.
And you can imagine a dog catching a whiff of scent perhaps on the left hand side of the picture here
and then the breeze taking it away again so that the dog gets a breath of scent
which then disappears. It must be very confusing for a young dog.
Look at Penelope here. She just hits that scent.
You can see the bird in the foreground and she comes to an abrupt halt.
I've got her on a cord because of course I'm using dizzy birds and I don't want her to catch one.
Erin has hit scent and now it's confused. He goes to the left and then to his right
and he hits the scent again and he's quite definite.
The longer you allow a dog to point like this the more staunch they will become.
And in the bad old days we used to sit down in the heather with our dogs
perhaps put the loop of the lead over a foot and have a cigarette.
I'm just waking up and I'm thinking of a dog.
I'm just waking up this this bird because I want Erin to stalk forward under control.
What I'm trying to do is to build up the communication between myself and the dog.
I want him to walk forward but in a steady controlled manner
because many of our game birds will run in front of the dog
and they must learn to be able to handle this situation.
Blackie is a different cattle fish. He is perhaps a bit too staunch.
He's got a very good nose and he's very intense on point.
Now look what happens when I start to flush this bird.
He's already been taught to drop to wing.
And as the bird flies he drops down.
Oh what a clever boy. What a clever boy.
What a clever boy. Oh he's clever.
Penelope on the other hand is a very clever girl.
Penelope on the other hand is still at the pouch stage.
She wants to rush in and grab the bird but I'm stopping her with a check cord.
It generally takes longer to train setters but then they're more intelligent.
Erin has got a very firm point on a planted bird.
What I've done here is to lightly dizzy the pigeon so that we hope it'll flush
and I can give him an exercise to drop to wing.
If I was using a pigeon releaser here
there's a likelihood that he would learn to drop to the thump of the releaser
rather than the flushing of the bird.
We want the trigger to be the actual flushing of the bird and for this trigger
to provoke the drop to wing.
Now watch his body language.
He's absolutely rigid on point at the moment
and I can mess him about and stroke him and fiddle with his tail
and he doesn't even notice.
The longer you take over these exercises and the more patient you are
the more patient the dog will become.
At night, even at dusk, he probably won't get all wet milliseconds at night.
There'll be your Planet Rover screen
What we are attempting to do is establish short patterns of behaviour.
Now watch him, he moved very slightly, so I take up the slack on the cord and he would
have chased when the bird flushed if I hadn't been prepared.
But instead I give the cord a little jack and tell him to sit and he goes into the sit
position.
Now this will be repeated and repeated until he does it automatically without being told.
Penelope is at last pointing but that's no guarantee that everything will go well.
I'm trying to move her slightly across the wind because I don't think she's in the centre
of the scent cone and she takes this as a trigger to go in and grab the bird.
I'm just going to take hold of the scruff of her neck so she won't hurt herself if she
does take a dive and using my long stick I'll wake the pigeon up and it flies off.
And we've definitely made progress because Penelope makes absolutely no attempt to chase
the pigeon.
Look at Blackie again, he's really getting very good.
He's dropping now in anticipation of the bird flushing.
Dogs are very good at anticipating events.
Blackie's reached the stage where he really needs some birds killed to his points.
But it's the close season and we don't shoot planted pigeons.
I'm going to go in and catch the pigeon and humanely break its neck.
I've killed it but while it's still fluttering I bring it back to Blackie and allow him to
pick it up with his mouth.
Now I'll walk off, he'll be reluctant to leave me and he'll be reluctant to leave the pigeon.
He's already been trained to retrieve so we get a perfect retrieve.
At this stage I would let the young dog drag a cord because we know he can point and if
he flushes a few wild birds and chases them that's no problem.
Very soon we'll have a finished product like Gary here who's quartering a maw for Red Grouse
down in the south west of Scotland.
There we've got a point in the back and the dogs are rolling forward to get a positive
location on a covey of Red Grouse.
We've got the guns out either side and I'll encourage them to go forward of the point
about 20 yards from the dogs, one on each side.
Then we all move forward together.
Because our birds are inclined to run the dogs will move forward with the handler to
put up the birds and there goes the covey and we've got one down.
The guns will reload and the dogs will be required to work out where the birds were
lying.
There could easily be one or two stragglers left in the heather.
The gun on the right is ready for another shot.
Don points a dead bird and I bring it back and show it to them.
The Red Grouse really is the prince of game birds.
It's this bird which has formed, helped form our pointers and setters.
The English, Irish and Gordon setters and the pointer.
It's a truly wild game bird and a delight to hunt.
The pointing instinct was intended as an introduction to the use of pointers and setters in Britain.
If you haven't seen it I think you'll enjoy it and it's a very good introduction to the
sport.
This is Don quartering on a moor near my house and now he's got a point.
And this is a young pointer puppy pointing birds.
Advie Dick, one of my Llewellyn setters.
And the youngsters coming on.
You've seen Shadow before.
You might also enjoy Grouse-Hawking which is a documentary on Henri Desmond who comes
to Scotland each year to fly his Jerv Peregrines at the Red Grouse.
He uses English setters to find them.
There's only so much you can show in a video and there are a lot of things in a book that
need to be shown with a moving image.
You should be able to get a copy of my book, Pointers and Setters, from any good book shop
by quoting this number.