Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1886-02-20
Cr8IoIB EXPERIAKNrS N KDr
CATISG ASfnAIA.

Ihs man and the dog have lived 70
Rethef In more OF ls9 insiu sts aseocsa-
ton for many thousands of yeaS, and
yef it must be csnfessrd that they know
comparatively little 81, nothing Of one
another That the dog 10 loyal. true
sud sdestisnste friend mast be CRATE
fully admitted. ba. when ve come 10
consider the psychicsl nature OF the
animal. the limiss Of oar knovisdge sre
slmsst Immediately reached / have
slsevhers suggested shat this ARISES very
much from the fact thai hitherto ve
have tried 20 se.ah animals, rather than
20 learn from them-te convey our
ideas 20 them. rather than TO devis- any
language OF code If signals by which
they might communicate theirs to Is.
The former may be more important
from usllitsrisn point Of view, thozgh
even this 10 questionable, bot psychic
logically Il 10 fsr less interesting. Un-
der these circumstances Il occurred TO
me whether some saah system as that
followed With deaf mates, and espe-
eially by DR.. Hsve with Laura Bridg
man. might NOS prove very instructive
II adapted TO the ease of dogs.
/ have tried this IN small vav with
blask poodle named Van" took
wv ttGLC8 VI O1LGeOA40 bOOAE ALAO
inches, and On one of them printed in
large letters the word Food" leaving
the other blank. then placed the two
cards over two ssacers, and IN the one
under the food" card pot q little breat
and nilk, which "Van,' after having
bis attention called to the card, was al
lowed TO eat. This was repeated over
and over again until he had had enough.
In about ten days be bsoan to iistin-
guish between the two cards. then
pot them on the floor and made him
bring them TO me, which he did readily
enough. When be brought the plain card
| simply threw il back. while when be
brought the food card, / gave him q
piece Of bread, and in about q month he
had pretty wsll learned to realize the
difference. / then had some ether
cards printed With the words "out,"
tea, bone" water" spelled pho
netically, ss as not to trouble him by
our intricate spelling. and a certain
nunber also with words TO which did
not intend him to attach any signifi-
oance, such as nosght," "plsin,"
" bail" etc. "Van" soon learned that
bringing card was a request, and
soon learned to distinguish between the
plain and printed cards. 1t took him
longer to realize the difference between
words. bat be gradually got to recognize
several, such as ''food, "" on" "bone,"
tea" etc. II he was asked whether
be wozld like TO 90 out for walk. he
voaid joyfully pick up the "ou," card,
choosing it FROM several others, and
bring ID to me or run With It in evident
triumph to the door.
l need hardly say that the cards vsre
not always put in the same places. They
we're varied quite indiscriminasely aad
in great variety of positions. Nor
could the dog recognize them by scent.
They were sll alike and all continually
handled by rs. Still / did not trust TO
that alone. but had a number printed
for each word. When. for instance, he
brought card with "food" on it, we
did not put down the same identical
card, but another bearing the same
word, when he had brought that,
. third. then fourth, and 30
on. For single meal. there
fore, eighteen or twenty cards
would be used, 80 that be evidently is
not guided by scent. No one who has
seen him lock down q rev of cards and
pick up the one he wanted could, |
think, doubt that in bringing a card, he
feels that he is making a request, and
that be can not only distinguish one
card from another, but also associate
the word and the object. This il, of
coarse, only a beginning, but it is,
venture to think, suggestive, and might
be carried further, though the limited
wants and aspirations of the animal
constitute great difficulty.
My wife has a very beautiful and
charming collie, d" Patience" to which
We are much attached. This dog was
often in the room when ivan" brought
the food card, and was rewarded with
piece Of bread. She must have seen
this thousands of times, and she begged
in the usual manner, but never once did
IL occur to her TO bring card. She did
not touch, or, iHdeed, take the slightest
notice Of them. thsn tried the fol
lowing experiment / prepared six
cards about ten inches by three, and
oolored in pairs-two yellow. two blue
and two orange. l pat three of them
on the floor, and then holding up one OF
the others, endeavored to teach
Van" TO bring me the do
plicate. certainly thought that be
would soon have grasped what vas ex
pected Of him. Bot no. We continued
the lessons for nearly three months.
but ss few days were missed, We may
say fer ten weeks, and yet at the end of
the time cannot say that ivan" sp
peared to have the least idea of what
Was expected of him. 1t seemed a
matter OF pure accident which card he
brought. There is. believe, no reason
to doubt that dogs can distinguish
solors; but AZ it was just possible that
Van" might be color blind, We then
repeated the same experiment.. only
substituting fer the colored cards others
marked, respectively, /, ii, and Ill.
This We continued for another three
months, or, say, allowing for in
termissioBs, ten weeks, but TO my sur
prise, entirely without success. Leroy,
Who, though he expresses the opinion
that "the nature Of the seul Of animals
Is uhimportant," was an excellent OBJ
server. mentions a case in which Q man
was anxious to shoot q crow. ITO de-
ceive this suspicious bird, the plan was
bit upon of sending two men to the
watch house, one of whom passed On
while the other remained; bat the Grow
counted and kept her distance. The
next day three went, and again
she perceived that only two re-
turned. In fine, it was found neces-
safy to send five or six men 10 the watch
house 10 pot her out in her calculation.
The CROW, thinking that this number Of
men bad passed by. lost no time in re-
turning" From this he inferred that
crows could oonnt up to four. Liohten
berg mentions nightingale which vas
said to count up TO three. Every day be
gave 10 three meal worms, ono 81 time:
when IL had finished one il returned for
another, bat after the third ID knew that
/ the feaaf vaa ovey