Almost every one who has ever used a gun has gone out sometime in his life after squirrels. If the hunter goes out in June he will find the young fellows, but in the fall he will get fully grown ones, and have little trouble in finding them. All he will have to do will be to hunt for nut trees, hickory especially, and the squirrels will surely be there getting their winter supply of nuts and they will get the best ones too every time. They can be found near berry patches as well, for they are great berry eaters.

The best time to kill the squirrels is early in the morning or late in the evening. Then they are doing their feeding. Through the middle of the day they stretch themselves out on a broad limb of a tree and go to sleep. Many a squirrel is killed while asleep, being found by the sun shining on his tail or the wind blowing it back and forth.

A good squirrel dog is a great dog to have. He can trail the squirrel through, the- woods and to the tree he has gone up, and if properly broken, will bark for you to come as a signal that he has a squirrel treed. He will keep barking or howling and so attract the squirrel's attention and give you a chance to approach the tree without the squirrel seeing you. Go as slowly as you can walk and keep about ten to twenty feet away, making very little noise. You will soon see the squirrel by watching the limbs move and so locate him; he will move from side to side and will be easy to hit.

To teach a dog to be a good squirrel dog, take him out about the first of May, while the squirrels are small, as then you will find them playing about little trees or saplings, that a little boy can climb up and bend over. On these they learn to jump and climb before they undertake to be active on large trees. When you have found a squirrel, move along with your dog and show him where the squirrel is. The best thing to do is to climb the tree and shake the squirrel off; this is easy to do as the tree will be small. When he falls on the ground he will get up and run to another tree and your dog at first will only bark and not offer to touch the squirrel. After a few lessons in this way he will go out by himself and hunt in heavy cover and open woods and just as soon as he strikes a scent he will bark for you to come to him, as he will have the squirrel treed. With a good dog you will be able to get squirrels whenever you go out hunting. Without a dog they are hard to get. You can take almost any kind of a dog and make a good squirrel dog out of him if you teach him in this way.

I always have my dogs retrieve them the same as they do birds or rabbits, as they think it more sport to hunt them if they know they will get the game in their mouths, as this is their pride and glory.