Everything that I have so far experienced or even heard of concerning dogs, I have attempted to set down here, and to do so has taken some fourteen months of close work. I have further added certain observations dating from an earlier period. It is my full intention to continue this work of experimentation, and should be glad if I might hope that what I have communicated in these pages may raise a desire on the part of some of my readers to embark on similar work in reference to other animals; for, in so difficult a field of discovery it can only be after much independent spadework has been done that the "complete form" we are groping after will be laid bare. Up to the present it may be thought that little of really practical value has been proved, and to some this may suggest that the work is therefore superfluous. But, do we study astronomy for mere _practical_ reasons? Does the seeker in this field of science imagine that he is going to derive _practical_ results for us, _in the immediate future_, from his study of the heavens? It is for purely _ideal_ reasons--and in order to give seeking humanity that which is indeed theirs, that we humans send forth our thoughts, exploring every region of the world--be this "of use" or not! And in thus probing the depths of our own subject do we not come up against those weightier questions which are of Cosmic importance? Does not Nature here fix man's eye with her own gaze--granting him new riches? For rich, indeed, is this gift that proves to him that not he alone is dowered with a soul[25]--nor dwelling in a world destitute of thought, nay--that his companion-beings along life's highway are well able to respond to and comprehend all his labour, his love, and his care for them. And above all, should it teach him to more clearly apprehend them--doing so in the spirit of a know-er and with a kindly sympathy begotten of that knowledge. For _To Know_--_to Understand_--means to give to each its rights! And, in this matter, have we to concede so much to our higher animals? The simplest form of thought contents them; the childlike adapting itself to animal uses; and, from such "small beginnings" has not our own primeval soul--the best that is within us--risen to higher glory, to become a moulder and organizer of thought--even of creative ideas? Therefore, from all that wealth with which we are dowered we may well allow this tiny morsel to our animal friends--they will assuredly infringe no further upon our rights, for, after all, they are dumb, and cannot even utter the small store of thoughts they may learn to express; they can only look at us--but, oh! how well they can do _that_--it needs no more than our eyes to tell us! And--if we review the entire animal kingdom, are not these _higher animals_ closely akin to us, both in bodily structure as also in all that appertains to their functional activities? So near, indeed, do they approach us in the degree of evolution that for that very reason