Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-08-15
MENTALITY IN DOGS.
INSTINCT SAID TO BE AN INSUF-
FiCiEN-r EXPLANATION.


way. corresponds to intelligence i'm mani
| Perhaps my term of mentality NAV be OBJ
| Jected To as too Iretentious, but ] know of no
better title for hat peculiar faculty shown
In the pre-eminently useful breeds Of dogs
Instinct hardly goes far enough for that is "a
| quality possessed 10y all animals while none
but dogs commonly show the apparent use of
reasoning power, an ability to distinguish
between cases an the course of action called
Tor under varying circumstances For in
stance, a cow viii sometimes learn how To
pull the peg inseI ted behind a gate to keep il
shut, or to press down pump handle To draw
water, or horss will know his way home
over a road he has Travelled but once, etc.
But all these sem but initiative in their
character. To lustrate, | must quote in
stances in the brseds I know best l. G mas
tiffs and bobtails and must be forgiven if !
repeat stories that have told in tine past.
What prompted my Gypsy before she de
parted for the canine paradise she certainly
earnedl or what now prompts her son Lion
when woman OF a child goes off the place.
particularly after dark, that they will GO
along If they can Ii Il man goes, they are
somewhat Indifferent, hut if prevented from
following woman or child, they would and
will fret in distracted way What taught
them that women and children needed pro
lection that full grown men didn't Why
will Lion allow the housemaid To hammer
she hired man and only frets and fumes,
pushing himself between them whining and
barking, but if tie case is reversed and the
man hammers the woman, he jumps ON the
former, knocks him down if possible, or
catches his arm OF legl The man feeds him.
looks after him, and as far as association
goes, the man sho Ild be the favored one. vet
he never misses taking the part of the weak
er party. tOf course, the hnmmerings are
all In sport, serious work in that line would
be very dangerous were any mastif around
that | have ever known.l What taught
Gypsy, Lion, Boadicea, Bertha, Persephone
Lees Turk, etc, that if the house was left
without any of the family, or only one of
the women, they must not 60 out of il until
adequate protection returnedf Why did the
very old, crippled Maidstone Nellie bristle
up her back, bare her teeth, Crowl like a
tiger and advance at a crowd of roughs
gathered AT my gate! She paid no attention
to them when they were quiet, but when the
air became blue W tn curses, she took in the
situation at once When Hector was pass
ing along public road and saw a woman
beating child with great severity and the
child bowling, what impelled him to Jump
the fence, and. without Offering to hurt the
woman, just grow at her and push between
her and the victim of her brutal temperi
Forty or iifty years since, MIR j. W. Thomp-
sons Juno Was lying in a room and two
tramps came into the adjoining hall and
walked of with a piece of meat lying ON the
table in the hall, from whence came the i'm
pulse that directed Juno to follow them and
bring them back % the housei She didn't
see the theft Why is it that any mastiff
will bristle up and ,rowl if a crowd assemble
near his owners premises and stand look
ing, pointing, etc, at it. 20
What suggested the discrimination Gypsy
made between the llaZier she found cutting
at pane of glass IN the house and the man
who might pick W something in the yardi
The former she kn, cked down. the latter she
Obliged TO drop what he had taken, and she
evidently recognized that one looked Hike
burglary and the other WAS only petty lar
ceny. Persephone didn't object to a stranger
going TO the front door, but when she saw a
man go in the back door she followed and
dragged him out If the house by the coat
tail Then the bo)tail, Bob, drew on his
inner consciousness for the knowledge that
rams should not be allowed TO fight, that
corn thrown down 10 the chickens was not to
be taken by the hogs, that n lsick animal in
the field must be laid aside by him and all
intruders must be lept at a respectful dis
tance, that he must bark like all possessed if
he found sheep il such difficulty as being
fastened by the hind leg in wire fence, that
all strange dogs must incOntinently be chased
out of fields where stock were; If no stock
should happen TO lie in the field, Bob might
have play with a stranger, but let the latter
cross the fence whore the stock were, there
Il - - a.
Dame Judith knows which cows are dry and
which want milking after once seeing them;
the cows which are left in the barnyard she
knows are not needed, and afterward never
brings them, while s1e does know that those
taken into the stables are wanted there. and
she will hunt all ove- field to bring one that
she knows i= want. a. passing by a dozen
times those she knows are not wanted She
also knows that strange dogs are improper
visitors In fields with stock, but she differs
from Bob in that she will attack such a tres
passer with the utmost ferocity, while Bob
simply drives them out of the field Bob
knows that a hens nest found in a field must
he promptly reported by barking until some
body comes for the eggs, but as the eggs are
not gathered from n turkeys nest, Bob does
not report the latter Now, not one of the
dogs / have mentioned ever received any
specific training thai led it TO perform the
work have described; the mastifs never re-
ceived any training whatever.
The two bobtails were broken to drive
stock, but never tau yht any of the things
have mentioned To avoid any appearance
of personal interest, / may say that of all the
dogs mentioned only three belonged to me.
OF course, this mental lity, or whatever it may
be called, is not an original characteristic of
dogs in their natural state. 1t is fair to pre-
sume that the special intelligence shown in
particular fields Of work is the result of train
ing and use in such ork of many generations
of ancestors; in fact, no other contention is
admissible, and it is certain that these pro
clivities are tolerably firmly fixed in certain
breeds, that is, the n astiff has the watchdog
qualities, the collie OF the bobtai the stock
caring instinct (par parenthesis, bobtais are
elegant watchdogsl, but fixed as these traits
are it is simply absurd to claim that they
are inevitable attend ants on the breeds; that
is, that we can keep On breeding mastiffs in
crowded kennels liks many black Essex
pigs, and with much attention TO their
mental and moral Development as is given to
a coop of Plymouth Rock fowls, and still re-
tain their discriminating wisdom. To do this
their owner must ma % them part of his fam
lily, part of his daily life, let them lie by his
fireside, accompany him In his walks abroad,
aud learn to associate themselves with him
and bis.
What Is now on my mind is TO impress on
all dog lovers that th're is a nobler quality in
dogs than type; that as our servants, friends
and companions, thei- mentality is infinitely
their most important quality, and while we
may raise heaven and earth TO shorten a mas
tiffis nose or lengthen a collies, or corkscrew
a pugs tail, let us K sep in mind what It is
that makes a dog ''ti friend Of man. Wv.
Wade in illustrated I-snnel Ma -azine
Good Appetlts
ia essential To good health: but at this