The freeman's journal., 1889-08-17
MENTALITY IN DOGS.
INSTINCT SAID TO BE AN lNSUF-
FiCIENT EXPLANATION.
There Is . Nobief Quality In Dogs Than
Mere Type-why Did Gypsy aud Lion
Always Give Special Protection to Women
and Children Other Evfderices

and Children ?-Other Evidences
DO fanciers ever realize that there is some
thing In dogs that, in its dim and giimmerin,
way corresponds to intelligence in man
Perhaps my term of mentality may be Oh
jected TO as too pretentious, but know OF nj
better title for that peculiar faculty showi
in the pre-cminently useful breeds OF dogs
Instinct hardly goes far enough, for that is
quality possessed by all animals, while non,
but dogs commonly show the apparent use o
! reasoning power, an ability to distinguish
I between cases and the course of action called
/ for under varying circumstances For in
stance. a COW viii sometimes learn how t
| pull the peg inserted behind gate to keep il
Shut, or to press down pump handle to draw
water. or horse will know his way hom.
over a road he has Travelled but once etc
| But all these seem but initiative i'm their
character. To illustrate, | must quote in
stances In the breeds / know best, l. e mas
tiffs and bobtails, and must be forgiven If
Z, repeat stories that l have told In the past.
What prompted my Gypsy before she de
1 parted for the canine paradise she certainly
earneb or what how prompts her son Lion
when woman or a child goes Off the place
particularly after dark, that they will &c
! along if they cant II man goes, they are
somewhat Indifferent, but il 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
the hired man and only frets and fumes,
pushing himself between them, whining and
barking, but If the case Is reversed and the
man hammers the woman, he jumps on the
former, knocks him down If possible, or
catches his arm or legf The man feeds him,
looks after him, and as far as association
goes, the man should be the favored one, yet
he never misses taking the part Of the weak
er party. tOf course, the hammerings are
all III sport, serious work In that line would
be very dangerous were any mastiff around
that | have ever known.) 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 ont of 1t until
adequate protection returnedl Why did the
very old, crippled Maidstone Nellie bristle
up her back, bare her teeth, growl like q
tiger and advance at a crowd of toughs
gathered at my gatei She paid no attention
to them when they were quiet, but when the
air became blue with 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 growl at her and push between
her and the victim Of her brutal tempera
Forty or fifty years since, Mr.. j. w. Thomp-
sons Juno was lying in room and two
trainps came into the adjoining hall and
walked off with 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 to the houses She didn't
sec the theft Why is it that any mastiff
will bristlo up and growl if a crowd assemble
near his owners premises. and stand look
fnC. pointing, ETC., at iti
What suggested the discrimination Gypsy
made between the glazier she found cutting
at Il pane of glass in the house and the man
who might pick up something in the yardi
Tue former she knocked down, the latter she
obliged to drop what he had taken, and she
evidently recognized that one looked bike
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
dragged him out of the house by the coat
sail. Then the bobtail, Bob, drew on his
inner consciousness for the knowledge that
rams should not be allowed to fight, that
corn thrown down to the chickens was not to
b. aiken by the hogs, that a sick animal in
the ticld must be laid aside by hinh,, and all
inilutlcrs must be kept at q respectful dis
tanre. that no must bark like all possessed If
lx..t u. n Ql--.
fastened by the hind leg In wire fence, that
ull TRANCE dogs must incontinently be chased
out Of fields where stock were; If no stock
should happen to be in the field, Bob might
have play with stranger, but let the latter
cross the fence where the stock were, there
would be war unless the stranger left at once
Dame Judith knows which cows are dry and
which want milking after once seeing them;
the COWS which are left in the barnyard she
knuws arc not needed, and afterward never
brings them. while she does know that those
taken into the stables are wanted there, and
she viii hunt all over field to bring one that
she knows is wanted, 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 Dob III that she will attack such a tres
fasscr with the utmost ferocity, while Bob
simply drives them out Of the field. Bob
know that q hens nest found in field must
be promptly reported by barking until some
body comes for the eggs. but as the eggs are
not gathered from a turkeys nest, Bob does
not report the latter Now, not one OF the
dogs | have mentioned ever received any
specific training that led it to perform tho
work have described: the mastihs never re-
ceived any training whatever.
The two bobtails were broken 10 drive
seock, but never taugnt 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-
or course, this mentality, or whatever it may
be called, l. not an original characteristic OF
dogs In their nacurnt state. Ii is fair To pre-
snme that the special intelligence shown in
particular fields Of work, is the result Of train
ing aud use In such work 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 mastif has the watchdog
Qualities, the collle or the bobtail the stock
caring instinct tpar parenthesis, bobtails are
elegant watchdogsi, but fixed as these traits
are, 1t IS simply absurd to claim that they
are inevitable attendants on the breeds: that
Is, that we can keep on breeding mastiffs in
crowded kennels like so many black Essex
pigs, and with as much attention to their
mental and moral development as is given to
. coop of Plymouth Rock fowls. and still re-
tain their discriminating wisdom. To do this
their owner must make them part of his fam
ay, part OF his daily life, let them lie by his
him in his walks abroad