Connecticut western news., 1873-01-17
The Emotional Nature of Dogs

A little reflection shows that dog approaches man much more nearly in the matter of feeling than either of physical or mental characteristics. It is startling fact, well brought out by Jesse in synopsis of the dogs attri- butes (" Researches" chap. v.), that there are very few human passions which dog does not share.
 A dog feels anger precisely as we do, and after provocation is sometimes vim dictive and sometimes placable, accord iag to his individual character. He is susceptible of hatred of the bitterest kind. He is so excrutiatingly jealous that his life becomes burden in the presence of favored rival. His envy continually leads him to eat what he does not want lest another animal should take it, and to illustrate the fable of "The Dog in the Manager" Gluttony holds out to him temptations under which even his honesty sometime succumbs :; but, on the other hand, from drunken ness he is nobly emancipated. A dog mentioned by the Rev. Thomas Jackson {" Our Dumb Companions" p. 48), hay ing once been made so drunk with malt liquor that he was unable to walk up stairs, ever after declined to taste the pernicious beverage, and growled and snarled at the sight of 8 pewter pot Again, as to love, Don Juan was cold and unenterprising character compared to dog and as'to maternal affection, the mother-dog feels it with heroic pas sion, starving herself to death rather than forsake her offspring. Gratitude may be almost said to be dogs leading principle, supplying first the spring of allegiance to his master, and ever after reconciling him with true magnanimity to take evil from the hand from which he has. accepted good. Regret and grief he feels so deeply that they often break his heart. Fear is passion which dogs exhibit with singular variation, some breeds and individuals being very tim orous, and others perfect models of courage; the latter characteristics and fortitude seeming to be more character jstically canine. A greyhound has been known, after breaking his thigh, to run on till the course was concluded and in the excellent new volume (" On the Dog," by Idstene p. 39), is frightful story of 8 foxhound whom its ferocious master fogged so savagely for "bab- bling as to cut out it's eye with his whip The animal continued to hunt with the pack till the end of the chase, where, upon the human brute, a certain Colonel Thornton, "took out his scissors and severed the skin by which the dog's eye had hung pendant during the entire ru4." As to hope, no one can observe the dog watching for his masters step as in Landseer's picture of "Expecta- tion," without admitting that he knows the sentiment as well as we. Pride in l successful chase may be witnessed in every dog, and even felt in the quickened heartbeats of greyhound when caressed and praised. That dogs have personal vanity appears from the fact that they are so manifestly dejected and demor- alized when dirty and ragged by long exposure, and recover their self-respect immediately upon being washed and combed. Chivalry and magnanimity may nearly always be calculated upon in dogs, and wife-beating is an offence to which the four-footed beast never de- scends. The stories are endless of big dogs generously overlooking the insults of small CUTS, or taking them into water and giving them good ducking as 8 punishment for their impertinence, and then helping them mercifully back tc land (see Jesse's Anecdotes" D. 147). Sense of property, bifurcating into both covetousness and avarice, is common tc all dogs. The kennel, rug, collar, water. basin, or bone once devoted to his use no dog can see transferred to another without indignation. Frequently he "covets his neighbors house" and at tempts to enscorce himself in it sllrrep titio1sly; and almost universally he covets his neighbours bone, and pl1rloins it if he dare. Even from avarice he cannot be wholly exonerated, observing his propensity to bury his treasures Shame, humor, gratitude, in fact, nearly all other emotional attributes not above enumerated, are also to be noticed il dogs.