The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-04-05
SOMETHING ABOUT DOGS.

Why They Bark and Other Information
About Them.
The people who went to the dog show
in the Madison Square garden and We're
nearly driven wild by the banks of the
vast army of dogs cncamped there, had
only themselves to blame for the noise
which those beasts make. The dog de-
rives the habit of barking from his as
ISOLATION with man. 1t is not natural
faculty, naturalists say, and is acquired
merely through the dogs desire to dc
what man does. The dog would like tc
come to it. The Australian dor never
banks and in Gardeners ''Musee of Ma,
ture" it is declared that "dogs in a
state of nature never bark, they simply
whine and howl; this explosive noise is
only found among those which are do
mesticated." The shepherds dogs in
the wilds of Egypt do not have the bark,
ing faculty, and Columbus found the
America to have lost their propensity for
barking. If man had let the dog alone
as he did the wildcat. there would not
have been this melange Of noises ut the
Madison Square garden.
Despite the fact that the dog is made
so much of, that he is a faithful animal
and companion to man, and that he is
the guardian of mans person and prop.
erty, many terms of vile reproach and
low vo, comparison mp" :ro orisnats,d from him, as
dog SICK" TO lead the life Of dog''
and worse than poor yallcr dog" In
the Eastern countries the dog was an
abomination and considered nothing but
the common scavenger of the streets.
Him that dieth in the city the dogs
shall eat, was said Of Jeroboam. The
lsraelites had no use for the dog and in
the Levitical law the Offering of dog
ians. however, held the dog in alteration,
as the representative of one of the celes-
tlal signs: and the Indians considered
him one of the sacred forms of their
deities. Samuel Butler wrote:
The Egyptans worshiped dogs and for
Their faith made internccinc war.
Properly speaking, the days of the dog
show should be called dog days, for there
is far greater probability of their run,
dog days" The fact of the case, how
ever, is that a dog is no more likely to
run mad in dog days than he is at any
other time of the year. Dog days arc
not 50 called because it is thought that
dogs arc likely to run mad then. The
canlcuiar or dog days are so called from
the hcliacal rising of Sirius, or the dog
star, as typical of the season of greatest
heat or wane of the summer. In speak
ing of dog days and mad dogs, it is an
error to suppose that mad dog avoids
water; for he will both drink it and swim
in it as usual, and without presenting
any of that horror of it which characters
ICES hydrophobia in man.
The dog furnishes man occasion for
much! study and nothing is more interest
ing than to note some of his habits and
pcculiarities. In the moonlight evenings
the dog is more watchful than usual, and
for. hours at time, unless interferc,l
wh By 5rn or w6a boot It, he will hay n1o the
window it is believed that some members aeuir :;
of the family will soon die. 1t may be
encouraging for the too liberal drinkers
to know that the hair of dog, when
burnt, was at one time prescribed as an
antidote against the effects of intoxica.
ton. Originally hard drinkers were rec
commended to take the burnt hair of a
d fsYi: before breakfast instead of the cock
One of the best stories about the intel
ligencc of dogs which has been told for
some time was repeated a few days ago
by an officer of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road company. He said that one of the
men in the passenger department had a
dog that could tell the time of day. The
owner of the dog had a fine clock in his
the dog tap with his paw at each stroke
Of the clock. After while the dog did
so without being told, and as the clock
gave little cluck just before striking,
the dog would get into position, prick up
his ears and tap out the time. If the
clock had struck one and little while
afterward his owner initiated the pre-
would give two taps with his paw and
so on for any hour. He knew just how
the hours ran and how many taps to give
for each one.-NeW York Tribune