After I had passed my Academic Examination, and taken my Diploma, I took over, some six months later, the independent management of a big estate in the Rheinland, which consisted of three hundred acres. (I was able to do this on the strength of some practical experience I had had previously in Thueringen apart from my studies.) After a year and a half I felt sufficiently at home at the work to be able to turn my attention to such matters of interest as lay outside that of my daily work, and I now called to mind the subject of the "Thinking Horses," deciding to attempt some experiments. The approach of such a solitary season as winter seemed to me particularly suited to this attempt and I placed myself in communication with Professor Ziegler so as to hear of a likely animal. It was to be a dog, and--for preference--a relation of Rolf. Indeed, I felt sure of excellent results, should my quest meet with success. A dog is of all animals _the_ one that has for generations associated most with man; its attachment is of the most intimate and the most faithful nature, so that by inheritance, as it were, it would seem to be in a greater state of "preparedness" for fulfilling man's behests. Horses, oxen, asses, pigs, and poultry, etc., are each and all, of course, accustomed to the guidance of man's hand, but--here in Europe, at all events--they live their lives apart and are not so domesticated; they cannot, therefore, form so intimate an acquaintance with man, by means of eye and ear, as can enable them to comprehend both language and gestures. For practical purposes horses would seem to come next to dogs in the matter of intelligence--more particularly Arab horses. An Arab talks to his horse as he would to a friend, and the sparkle in the eye of this animal denotes its intelligence. In the matter of actual sensibility, the ox, the ass, and other creatures have practically nothing in common with us, showing an utterly foreign type of intelligence, and one, moreover, which has--owing to the existent century-old customs of keeping them isolated in their stalls--depressed even such intelligence as was originally theirs. Creatures of the wild seem only in exceptional cases to prove amenable to training, however great their intelligence may be they cannot adapt themselves to man's control, and can as a rule only imitate, seldom revealing to us any gleam of mental alertness. Professor Ziegler recommended a bitch which was a descendant of Rolf's and advised me to pay a visit to Mannheim. I did so, and our interview was most satisfactory. It lasted three-quarters of an hour, by which time I had assured myself that the dog could answer, even though he did not tap my hand, but rapped out his remarks on a piece of cardboard held by Fraeulein Moekel. Here is the account of my visit: "REPORT OF FRAeULEIN KINDERMANN OF HER VISIT TO THE FAMILY OF DR. MOEKEL, IN MANNHEIM, 11 JANUARY, 1916.