The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-05-23
TO MAKE A DOG COUNT.
The Owner of Scotch Collie Exc
plains How the Thing May he
Accomplished,

Noting the profound interest dis
played in the tricks of a Scotch Col
lie dog known as Bozzie H., and the
interesting account of the demon
strations of her powers so honestly
set forth in the columns of the Trib
une, l make bold to give my analysis
of the phenomenal cropping out of
canine intelligence in this certain
species, writes T. G. Reighter, of Chi
cago, to the editor of the Tribune.
In August of last year 1 purchased
Collie puppy, then three months
old, whose pedigree could not be
compared with any of the baser met
ais, but was of the pure gold'
stripe, whose mother was Fanny Cla-
son, and whose grandmother was
Bozzie l., and, thinking that perhaps
the same degree of intelligence
might be innate with this puppy as
of it's ancestors, I set about at once
to develop, if possible, whatever pow
ers she possessed. The first thing I
did was to secure her strict atten-
tion by a kindly caress or pat upon
the head and at the same time give
the firm, sharp command of ''tell
me- and also chow many" coupling
with each of these I would initiate
the bark of dog, holding her at
tention all this while, until at the
end of perhaps two weeks of patient
endeavor 1 succeeded in getting her
to understand what [ wanted
Finally, whenever I gave the com
mand S'tell me" or show many" she
would bark several times after either
of them, never in any instance re-
warding her with a morsel of food,
but made her understand that when
I made use of one of these phrases
in the tone of command | demanded
obedience, and it was her part to
obey-namely, to "speak" several
times.
You will readily appreciate that I
did not make use of the command
"speak," as I could not with this
word ask her question in arith-
metic, in order to show off her ac-
complishments before any one. I
then began by holding her attention
fixedly with my eyes, having a stern
facial expression, asking her a sim
pie question, as "How many are two
and two?" Just as soon as she
would hear the words "how many
she would start to bark, and. imme-
diately upon her barking four times,
the correct answer, [ would relax
tho Jo,1Isa1aS of fonn nd
she would Immediately stop. And
likewise in asking any question In
arithmetic / would compel her to
look at me, couple one of the key
phrases with my question, and at the
same time frown, no matter how
slightly. and as soon as the correct
number had been barked, the relaxa-
tion of my facial muscles would
cause her to cease, and this would
not be noticed by any one looking
on, no matter how shrewd or how
keenly they may have watched, and
this could be repeated time and
again without detection, astounding
one and all alike.
Now you can raadily see that a
slight notton of the foot, slight
cough, a light tap of the finger, a
sneeze (forced), wink of the eve,
opening and closing the hand, and
many other unnoticeabAe signs could
be substituted and used to cause the
question and the manner of asking it
could be varied innumerably, making
it appear that the animal actually
does 'iread the mind" in many In
stances. But the key to it all is in
the key words, "tell me" and chow
many" or any other signal which
starts the dog to barking, or look
will sometimes cause the animal to
begin, and then use the "air brake"
signal.
OF course, I do not wish to be mis-
understood. I do not deny that this
particular "tricl'' cxemplfies a high
order of canine intelligence, brought
about by long line of ancestors
whose constant companion was man
for century upon century; but I do
deny that there is the slightest trace
of mind reading" mental tele-
pathy," or Thought transferrence,"
nor can it be vaunted forth as a
psychological phenomenon" It is
trick" plain, pure and simple.
"I also taught my dog many other
"tricks" too numerous to mention
here. My main object is to state
that | do not believe there is mind
reading" calculating" dog. It is a
case of obeying the signals of it's
master.