Evening star., 1942-03-25

United states
whose owner
Hs.rv MsLsnsrs. does not claim
for her q direct kinship with that
champion Of champions, Ny Own
Brucie.
Like nearly all other owners Of
cookers, I claimed kinship with My
Own Brucie for Cindy when she was
. tiny pup. Such . claim u safe.
then, because when . cocker Is very
small 1t is nothing but . ball Of
fur and one pup looks - good ~
another.
But - Cindy grew, and her
feathers didn't, abandoned the
pretense. BY the time that she was
8 months old 1t was obvious that the
only way she was ever going to get
into the Westminster Kennel Club
show would be to buy . balcony seat
for herself.
But, despite the fact that her tail
has grown much faster than her
ears, and abe hasn't much more
clearance than . dachshund, there Is
nothing wrong With her mental
equipment. I have at lesst % years
Of schooling on her. but aas out-
thinks and outwtts me st least 10
times q day. She Is the perfect ex-
ample Of the self-made dog. She
never even sold magazine subscrip-
tons to put herself through school
Recently I got to thinking how
much nicer 1t would b for her and
for me II she could only talk. It
would save US q tremendous amount
Of inconvenience. There must be
rainy nights when I slip the leash
around her neck and start for the
elevator when she would give her
last dog biscuit or the latitude and
longitude Of her buried bone to be
able to say mo-" How many reluc-
tant dogs are dragged out into the
cold and rain, to be tugged around
the block by even more reluctant
masters, simply because the dog Is
unable to say one simple word mo"
By the same token, imagine how
many are not taken for . stroll be-
cause Of an inability TO say An
equally simple word, yes"
Today marked my fourth effort to
teach Cindy to talk and the efforts
have not been entirely fruitless.
She still isn't ready to Join In AMI.
mated conversation with humans.
but she is q lot closer to saying yes"
than when I started.
At first her vocabulary was strictly
. dog one. AL she had was the
usual assortment Of arts and
grrrr's and woofs and yips and bow
vows, although she did speak with .
much finer tone, and with much
clearer diction than the cocker next
door. who drops his growb and slurs
his arts.
To teach her I look her straight
In the eye, from . distance Of
about half an inch farther than q
nea can Jump, and say. very slowly,
''Yes-suh" and ''No-suh." During
the first two lessons she responded
by making q pass at my nose with
her teeth. I reproved her by max
making . pass at her nose with my
teeth and at one time during tho
second lesson school came close to
developing into q biting contest, and
probably would have had she not
given me q look which indicated
that If I happened to bite her she
was going to demand the Pasteur
treatment for herself.
At the moment she can come
pretty close to saying yes" As .
matter Of fact, there have been times
when I suspect her Of saying . lot
more than that. Take last night
when I disturbed her sleep for .
brief 15-minute instruction In Eng.
nsh. Unless I am mistaken she
made q definite reference to my
antecedents-and there was no
mention of My Own Brucie.
After Cindy has mastered yes"
and no." plan to teach her type.
writing. Who knows but some day
she'll be able to do q guest column
for me. Such Q column would make
good reading. Don't tell me you
wouldn't be interested in knowing
what dogs think about US. often
wonder If they consider us humans
dogs best friends.
Distributed by MeNauxht Syndicate. Ine.)