DOG EMOTIONS. 43'J 



gregarious instincts, united with his high intelligence and 

 constant companionship with man, give to this animal a 

 psychological basis for the construction of emotional cha- 

 racter, having a more massive as well as more complex 

 consistency than that which is presented even in the case 

 of the monkey, which, as we shall afterwards see, attains 

 to a remarkably high level in this respect. 



Pride, sense of dignity, and self-respect are very con- 

 spicuously exhibited by well-treated dogs. As with man, so 

 with the friend of man, it is only those whose lines of 

 fortune have fallen in pleasant places, and whose feelings 

 may therefore be said to have profited by the refining 

 influences of culture, that display in any conspicuous mea- 

 sure the emotions in question. * Curs of low degree,' and 

 even many dogs, of better social position, have never enjoyed 

 those conditions essential to moral refinement, which alone 

 can engender a true sense of self-respect and dignity. A 

 * low- life' dog may not like to have his tail pulled, any 

 more than a gutter child may like to have his ears boxed ; 

 but here it is physical pain rather than wounded pride 

 that causes the smart. Among * high-life ' dogs, however, 

 the case is different. Here wounded sensibilities and loss 

 of esteem are capable of producing much keener suffering 

 than is mere physical pain ; so that among such dogs a 

 whipping produces quite a different and a much more 

 lasting effect than in the case of their rougher brethren, 

 who, as soon as it is over, give themselves a shake and think 

 no more about it. As evidence of the delicacy of feeling 

 to which dogs of aristocratic estate may attain, I shall 

 give one or two among many instances that I could render. 



A reproachful word or look from any of his friends 

 would make a Skye terrier that I owned miserable for 

 a whole day. If we had ever ventured to strike him I 

 do not know what would have happened, for his sentiments 

 were quite abreast of the age with respect to moral repug- 

 nance to the use of the lash. Thus, for instance, at one 

 time when all his own friends were out of town, he was 

 taken for a walk every day in the park by my brother, to 

 whose care he had been entrusted. He enjoyed his walks 

 very much, and was wholly dependent upon my brother 

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