National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1873-01-10
The Emotional Nature Of Dogs

A little reflection shows that dog
approaches man much more nearly in
tha aUatter Of feeling than either of
physical o. ,pitsital characteristics. IL
is startling fact, well brought ont by
Jesse in II synopsis of the dogs attri-
butes {" Researches" chap. w., that
there IRE 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
ing to-Bis individual character. He is
susceptible of hatred Of the bitterest
Kind. He is SO excrutiatingly jealous
that his life becomes a burden in the
presence of n 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 Manger" 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. 49,, hav-
ing once been made SO drunk with malt
liquor that he was unable to walk up
stairs, ever after declined to taste the
pernicious beverages,taH growled and
snarled at the sight of 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. Gratittfde
may be almost said to be Il dog IS 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 keart. 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
istically 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 Idstone Up. 39), is frightful
story of a foxhound whom its ferocious
master flogged so savagely for "bab-
bling AS to cut out its eye with his whip.
The animal continued to hunt with the
pack till the end of the chase, where,
upon the human brute, certain Colonel
Thornton, took out his scissors and
severed the skin 10y which the dogs eye
had hung pendant during the entire
run. AS to hope, no one can observe
the dog watching for his masters step
as in Landseer's picture of "Expecta-
ton, without admitting that he knows
the sentiment as well as we. Pride in
a successful chase may be witnessed in
every dog, and even felt i'll the quickened
heartbeats of a greyhound when caressed
and praised That dogs have personal
vanity appears from the fact that they
are SO manifestly detected and demor
allied 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-
sends The stories are endless of big
dogs generously overlooking the insults
OF small ours, or taking them INTO water
and giving them a good ducking as a
punishment for their impertinence, and
then helping them mercifully back to
land (see Jesse's Anecdotes" p. 147).
Sense of property, bifurcating into both
covetousness and avarice, is common to
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 neighbor's house, and at
tempts to enscorce himself in it surrep-
titiouslv; and almost universally he
covets his neighbor's bone, and purloins
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 in
dogs.