Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Many other equally clever instances convince me, and those who with
me witnessed them, of the possession, in of course a limited degree,
of reasoning powers. Scores of my dogs never seemed to reveal them,
perhaps because no special opportunities were presented for their
exhibition. They were just ordinary dogs, trained to the work of
hauling their loads. When night came, if their feet were sore they
had dog sense enough to come to their master and, throwing themselves
on their backs, would stick up their feet and whine and howl until
the warm duffle shoes were put on. Some of the skulking ones had wit
enough, when they did not want to be caught, in the gloom of the early
morning, while the stars were still shining, if they were white, to
cuddle down, still and quiet, in the beautiful snow; while the darker
ones would slink away into the gloom of the dense balsams, where they
seemed to know that it would be difficult for them to be seen. Some of
them had wit enough when traveling up steep places with heavy loads,
where their progress was slow, to seize hold of small firm bushes in
their teeth to help them up or to keep them from slipping back. Some
of them knew how to shirk their work. Cæsar, of whom we have already
spoken, at times was one of this class. They could pretend, by their
panting and tugging at their collars, that they were dragging more
than any other dogs in the train, while at the same time they were not
pulling a pound!
Of cats I do not write. I am no lover of them, and therefore am
incompetent to write about them. This lack of love for them is, I
presume, from the fact that when a boy I was the proud owner of some
very beautiful rabbits, upon which the cats of the neighborhood used to
make disastrous raids. So great was my boyish indignation then that the
dislike to them created has in a measure continued to this day, and I
have not as yet begun to cultivate their intimate acquaintance.
But of dogs I have ever been a lover and a friend. I never saw one, not
mad, of which I was afraid, and I never saw one with which I could not
speedily make friends. Love was the constraining motive principally
used in breaking my dogs in to their work in the trains. No whip was
ever used upon Jack or Cuffy while they were learning their tasks.
Some dogs had to be punished more or less. Some stubborn dogs at once
surrendered and gave no more trouble when a favorite female dog was
harnessed up in a train and sent on ahead. This affection in the dog
for his mate was a powerful lever in the hands of his master, and,
using it as an incentive, we have seen things performed as remarkable
as any we have here recorded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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