Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-27
MANS BEST FRIEND.
0uida Discourses Lovingly of Dogs
and Their Good Qualities.
ERRORS OF BENCH-SH0W JUDGES.
Folly of Sacrificing a Dogs Feelings for
External Beauty.
DIFFERENCE IN CANINE CHARACTERS
ERRORS OF BENCH-SHOW JUDGES
DIFFERENCE IN CANINE CHARACTERS
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH


An English writer has declared that in
view of the moral advantages which man
enioys from constant intimacy with the dogs
the former has not derived all the benefits
he might have done from contact with the
latter. This is one of those jests which are
not without substance and suggestion in
fact. The dog does continually display
Qualities upon which man might with ad-
vantage mold his own conduct, and in un-
selfshness, the canine animal leaves the
human animal far behind him. There
is a charming story by Louis
Enault called the "Chien de Cspitaine, I"
which 1 should wish everyone who
cares for dogs to read, and which would,
even to those who do not care for animals,
awaken sympathy in the loyal rough-coated
four-footed hero and his troublous Odyssey
from Senegal 10 Normandy. A French critic
once gravely objected to a story of this kind
on the score that un chien ne pourrait pas
penser. Now that dog can, and does think,
and think to much purpose, there can be no
doubt whatever to those who haYe studied
them in life with sympathy and attention.
/ an quite sure that dog thinks in exactly
the same manner as, although In different
measure to ourselves. Sight and hearing be-
ing supplemented in him by that wonderful
sensibility of the olfactorY nerves comforting
upon him a sixth sense, Of which we can
form but a very vague conception, the dogs
views, actions, antipathies, attachments and
judgments of all events, places and persons
are cololed and guided BY what this delicate
and marvellous act of nerves tell him about
them.
The physiologist who destroyed the nerves
OF a dogs nose found, what he might have
known without the operation. that he de-
Etroyed in him all powers of discrimination,
selection and attachment 1t is impossible
for us to measure the innumerable and
ultra-sensitive impressions conveyed by the
olfactory nerves to the canine brain, but
that on receiving these impressions his brain
thinks exactly as the human brain thinks,
there can be no doubt to anyone who is ac-
customed to study dogs. l have seen dog
standing in 8 doorway looking up and
down and pondering which way it would be
most agreeable to take, precisely as a club
lounger will stand on the steps OF his club
and mediate whether be shall turn to the
right or to the left Dogs have very strongly
marked volition, inclination and powers of
CHOICE, anu lOelT WISHES are tOO OlIeu
lected and set aside or brutally thwarted.
A WELL-TRAINED DOG.
The general idea Of well-brought-up dog
is dog who is cowed out of all will Of his
own; but it is only in leaving the animal
much of his own will that the interesting
characteristics of his idiosyncrasy can be
studied and enjoyed. A dog who is afraid
is dog who has been robbed of the frank
charm of his original temper; he becomes
hesitating and sad, if he does not become
sullen, and is so timid lest he should offend
that all his delightful impulsiveness disap-
pears; instead OF varied aud most interest
ing individuality YOU have mere machine
wound by the single spring OF fear. Men
too often forget that all which they COM
mand in sport, or in other forms of ODE
dience, is against the nature of
thAzsadag, opposed to his instincts,
oppressive to his desires; and they