The times., 1899-09-24
THE Dog TRAINERS WORK
Great Patience Required to Teach
Tricks to Animals.
Different Qualities of Brains In Ca
mines and Monkeys as Well as Per-
Necessary-vicious simians often
Prove to he the Most Intelligent.


We're remarkable for the clever manner in
which they performed tricks aud acrobatic
feats usually gone through by men and
women in circuses, and their training re-
quired months of work and more patience
than is possessed by the average person.
We have offers of hundreds of dogs at
every city We visit" said the trainer,
but it is seldom that we buy any Mess
they strike our fancy with being especially
smart and easy to manage
The first thing to teach dog Is To
mind, and il is not as easy as you would
think. Kindness is all right but frmness
is better, and there are few dogs that can
be trained without getting a taste OF the
rod. The adage about .sparing the rod
is as applicable to dogs as it is to children.
II takes six months to train dog 20 fol-
low with the other dogs, and to answer
TO his name. After that his education
begins in earnest. Dogs are not the least
initiative, and, while monkey will pick
up a trick by seeing other monkeys per-
form IL, you have 10 train each dog sepa-
rately 10 do his work The old adage YOU
can't teach Old dog new tricks, does
not hold good in cur business, and il Is
easier to teach an old dog new tricks than
II is to teach new dog old tricks.
Dog sense does not run in families
either. for there are Shellbark and Major
Russian poodles, full brothers, but She'll
bark is a college graduate while Major Is
still in the kindergarten. Shellbark the
white woolly clown with brown ears. ap-
pears in almost every act from knocking
over the baskets to running under the
hoop, while Major hauls one OF the wag-
ons around and does odd jobs.
Stars Among the Dogs.
THE stars among the dogs are just like
the stars in the comic opera grand opera,
or any theatrical performance. All they do
is the one specially and then they rest.
They never appear in the street parade.
and for jealousy they have gotten the hu-
man stars beaten all hollow. Take Ellis,
the white English collie that rides the
pony bareback in the show, and jumps
over the pony, and rides in the hurdles.
After the show Ellis lies down and rests,
and if any of the other dogs make a noise
around him there is trouble, for Ellis starts
fight. He is jealous, too, and if any
other dog gets more applause than Ell
lis, he sulks and does not want TO act
Cyclone is another star. He is the big
white greyhound that made the high leap,
and that is all he did He makes a leap
twice day, and then he takes it easy.
the little white fox terrier with black
ears, that made the dive from the high
ladder II took just thirty minutes TO
teach him to climb the ladder. but ne did
not like the idea of making the jump. At
ter twenty or thirty minutes eoaxing,
however, he jumped, and since then We
have had no trouble. In an hour he learn
ed a trick we have spent weeks trying 10
teach other dogs, but none has succeeded
like Dixie,
The French poodles, which perform the
act of Mr. and Mrs. Snyder, and the Ba-
by Bunch, were easy TO train, bat they
are so timid that they never gain full
confidence in themselves and at every per-
formance they are afraid they are going
TO make mistakes. The care which they
exercised in sitting in the chairs and
which looked as if they were trying not
to rumple their clothes was caused by
their timidity. but the audience thought u
was good acting, so the result is Just the
same. They have to be treated like timid
children and only coaxing and petting VIII
| get them to go through with their work
| Year to Learn a Trick.
| 1T required a year to teach Ellis, the
white English collie, to leap on the back
of the moving pony. He was fiIsC taught
| to jump up on the pony while it was
standing, the bread board saddle which he
! first rode on being used After he had
/ learned TO jump up on this board, the pony
was walked around and the trouble began,
for Ellis could not keep his balance and
/ it was several months before he got ex-
pert enough to stay on the moving animal;
after that was accomplished he had TO be
taught to keep his balance on the bare
| back of the pony He could Jump on the
| pony all right but he could not stick
there. Finally he found that by standing
near the pony's shoulder, he Coud brace
himself and retain his footing, and he has
the trick down pretty fine, but even now
he is not asked to jump on the pony more
| than twice at each performance Ii is
/ star act and causes more comment than
any other ill the show"
| OF all the men connected with the show
! any one OF them could be better spared
| than 'O.d Sam" His name is Sam Bre-
niser, but none of the show people knows
| his family name and it was only learned
| by asking Sam himself With the show
people he is simply .Old Sam" who has
| charge of the dogs, day and night, when
| they are not in the show ring, and when
4 they are Sam is in the tent near. dressing
| the dogs and monkeys for their acts. Sam
! feeds the dogs and marshals them TO and
/ from the dressing tent and to and from
! the train TO the show grounds when new
! town is entered He knows the name of
every dog and the dogs know his voice and
obey him. Without him it would require
/ fifteen or twenty men TO lead the CANNES
| about Sam has two or three helpers who
! whip in the diobedient dogs, but most of
them follow him closely and halt and start
at his word. One of his hardest tasks is to
| teach new dog its name when il has to be
/ changed He spends hours every day re-
| peatfng over and over TO the dog the name
| it has to bear and then the dog is put into
the yard where the others are confined and
its name called out. If it does not respond,
one of the men enters the yard and brings
it out This is kept up until the dog fn-
ally learns its name, but even then it has
spells of forgetfuIness and has to be re-
! minded by a sharp cut of the whip.
Juliet. the Talking Pony.
The way Juliet, the talking pony, knows
when TO ned the head in affirmative and
when to shake it in the negative was ex-
planned by the trainer, who said signs were
used, and that the pony watched all his
movements when he had it face the audi
enee, but what the signs were the trainer
said was a secret, and the closest watch
On his movements failed 10 reveal them.
though the pony could see them as it
went through its performance in private
for the reporter, and never failed TO give
the correct answers 10 the questions.
According 20 the trainer. the more vi
cious the monkey the easier it is to train,
and Jim" the big Simian, which kept the
gong on the fire engine ringing as the
apparatus dashed into the arena, was pTr