236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE TRAINING OF DOGS.* 



By WEf^LEY MILLS, M. D. 



AN analysis of our own psychic life, complex as mucli of it is^ 

 - compared with that of the dog, shows that a great part of 

 our mental processes are not concerned with abstractions and 

 generalizations of a very high order, but with actual concrete 

 perceptions and conceptions; that we think in pictures rather 

 than words ; that our thoughts are the result of past associations ; 

 that the machinery of the mind or brain is so connected that 

 when one part is moved, so to speak, a whole series of connections 

 are established. Hence the psychic life of every creature must 

 be related essentially to its past experiences. 



If this be true — and it can not be doubted — we think, then, the 

 puppy's intelligence, like our own, begins to develop, and con- 

 tinues to do so exactly in relation to its environment. We can 

 make that environment pretty much what we will ; and with the 

 dog, his master from the first, and always, is the principal factor. 



Two extreme views have for a long period been entertained in 

 regard to the training of the dog ; the one that he is a wdld, way- 

 ward creature to be " broken," the other that he needs no special 

 correction if properly taught from the first. Neither is quite 

 correct. 



A puppy full of life tends to do exactly as his impulses move 

 him, till the highest motive power, a desire to please his master, 

 is substituted. It follows that a puppy can not be too soon led to 

 understand that he has a master— kind, honest, intelligent, and 

 firm. He must be consistent with his puppy. All caprice i& 

 fatal ; it utterly confuses and demoralizes the dog. 



Remembering that principle we laid down long ago, that the 

 dog is very like ourselves, we can indicate a few principles for 

 training that we think will meet the test of experience. The 

 puppy at one period is like a young infant, later like a two-year- 

 old child, and at the best most'dogs never get beyond the intelli- 

 gence of a young child in most respects, though in some qualities 

 the wisest man is far behind the dog. 



For practical purposes the puppy may be treated as an infant, 

 but as a rapidly developing one. He gets his information through 

 his senses, and his training must be related to this, and to the fact 

 that he is a creature with strong impulses but little self-control. 



It is a well-established law of the nervous system that what 

 has happened once is likely to occur again under the same circum- 



* From advance sheets of the author's book. The Dog in Health and Disease, in prepa- 

 ration by D. Appleton k Co. 



