Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-07
THE NATURE OF DOGS


out among the guests of this hotel during
the past couple of weeks" said the pro-
prietor Of dog boarding house up in the
northeast section. ''The first thing folks
returning to the city from the mountains
and seashore and country do is to come and
get their dogs.
Mighty affecting lot of these meetings
between dogs and their owners. The ex-
perienced dogs that are used to being left
behind at dog boarding house while their
folks are away always have pretty good
idea as to when they're going to be re-
claimed / won't go so far as to say that
they know their peoples plans, but they
;sInin the autumn-as soon as it gets here, and
when the first fall days arrive. And when
they get 1t into their heads that they re due
TO be claimed they become nervous and ex-
cited and irritable. and doze with one eye
and one ear open for the footstep or the
sound of the voice that means so much to
them. When the first bunch of dogs are re-
claimed those that are left behind sulk on
i me something fierce. Not that they don't
like 1t here-most OF them, that is--but they
all like home and their own folks better,
naturally enough. We all do.
Three of my boarders have died on me
since the beginning of the dog boarding sea-
son. All three of them piped out from nos
taigia. Dogs, in my opinion, suffer more
acutely from inconsistencies than humans do.
Small pet dogs. raised and coddled by
women, are, of course the most common
victims of nostalgia, but big outdoor dogs
go to their graves from it, too. Done of the
dogs that / lost this past summer from
Inconsistencies was fine collie He was
bred from his puppyhood by a couple liv-
ing out beyond Mount Pleasant. His mis-
tress died last June, and his master Inn
naediately closed up his house and went
away out west somewhere and left the
dog here with me.to be boarded. The col
lie was so far down In the mouth mourning
for his dead mistress when he came home
that when his master came here I warned
him that he might not get through his
grief When his master went Off 1 could
see plain enough that the dog had no
further interest In life, and that he didn't
want to live ANY longer. He wouldn't even
smell food, and finally L had to feed him
by force But 1t was no use. His heart
was broken. and five weeks after he came
here he turned up his paws without a
whine. The widower got back from the
west and came here for the collie a few
weeks later, and he was a sure-enough
Observation-Disclosures man when told him
the dog was dead,
Me next, and I wish I'd been first
was all he said. though
1.-THE other two that died on my hands
from inconsistencies were Jap spaniel and
a fox terrier. The Jap dog belonged to
lady of the diplomatic corps, who left
him here before starting for Europe. She
came out here and spent half day with
the dog before starting on her trip. She
left me typewriter list of instructions
for the care Of the dog. But the poor lit
tie beggar curied up and cnucked 1t just
thirteen days after his mistress departure.
Just lay and moaned and whimpered with
his head between his paws The big. sea-
soned dogs, used to the boarding out
into cheerfulness, but 1t was no go. He
felt that he'd got the shake from his mis-
tress. and when sensitive dog gets the
idea into his head that he's been abandoned
a mis- tn
THE fox that died belonged to a young
fellow who went down to the Philip pines
for the government last spring. He kept
one ear stretched out of shape for month
listening for his masters returning foot
steps. Then he took to the dark corners
OF the Enclosure for his and waited for
death. Although I made him take liquid
food, he became skeleton from pure lone
somness. and he wasn't much more than
handful when he passed 1t up. -
II don't know whether I'm going to have
any left-behind dogs this year or not. but
/ hope not. I had two left-behlnds last
year. One of them died, and had hard
time pulling the other one through.
The mistress of one of them died sud
denly while on trip north. and the man
who owned the other one got mixed up in
some kind of a money deal that sent him
to prison. Both of these dogs were expe-
rienced summer boarders, but when the
time was long overdue for them to be called
for and all the rest of the boarders had
gone, they both took sick together They
knew that something was wrong. The st.
Bernard, whose mistress had died, lasted a
couple of months and then chucked it. The
other one, an Irish setter, I managed to
save by lending him to a man bound on
hunting trip. The dog became interested
in the retrieving work, and, at the close of
the hunting trip. when 1 turned him over
to relatives of his imprisoned owner, he
came around all right.
Some dog owners are peculiar peo-
pie to deal with. and dog board
ing home keeper can never know
whether he's going to make hit with
them or not Last spring skye terrier was
left with me by Capitol Hill woman about
to go abroad. The terrier was a house
ard when I got him. If you'd SO much as
beckon to him he'd crouch and crawl along
as IL he'd been beaten within an inch of his
life every day since his birth. Now, I don't
let dogs intrusted to me do any. fighting,
but I've got a way or two of taking the
cowardice out Of dogs built that way. /
taught this skye terrier to believe that he
wasn't the natural prey OF every spunky
little mutt one-quarter of his size that felt
like taking a piece out of his ear or leg,
and when he had got that far he improved
fast. Began to assert himself and talk back
to the other zones when they brushed
against him. When he thought they were
trying to give him the worst of 1t he was
there with his kick. and by the time his
mistress called for him he was just all dog
and worth having. But two days after she
lUoh ulil away SHc Gains running Udck 10
me with an angry face. Wanted to know
what I'd been doing with her dog to make
a rowdy of him.
He's already thrashed every dog of his
size. and some great deal more than his
size, within two blocks of the house, and
I'm afraid to let him out into the street,
she said to me.
II advised her to let the dog alone. Told
her that the dog was only teaching the dogs
in his neighborhood their place, and that
when he'd finished doing that he'd settle
down to a quiet life. Her husband was
with her when she called that time, and
he dallied behind when she left to have a
private word with me.
Say, he said to me, send a bill to my
Office for anything extra you want to charge
for putting backbone into that mutt. Why,
say, he pulled off a draw with big. scrappy
bull terrier the other evening. and l was
SO swelled up when l saw him do that that
1 could hardly get through my front door,,
But that dog will be all right, as I told
his mistress. It's the invariabe rule that
when a cowardly dog once tumbles to him.
self and finds out that he's a dog among
dogs he makes 1t his business to show all
the rest ri the dog feiierS living within