THE TRAINING OF DOGS. 



239 



possilole, and pleasant, and it will be preferred, especially if the 

 wrong-doing is followed by the reverse experiences. 



Dogs are not filthy in their habits, but some people who keep 

 them are, and others do not understand what is required to enable 

 a dog to follow his instincts of cleanliness. Where a dog has 

 once been to respond to Nature's call, he tends to visit again, and 

 this is a guide to enable us to avail of natural instinct to enable 

 us to maintain cleanly surroundings. The same general princi- 

 ples apply when dogs are taken afield to be worked on some sort 

 of game. At first the puppy may run toward almost every form 

 of life he sees. This is natural, and he would not be worth his 

 keeping if he did not show some such tendency to investigate the 

 world about him. 



TAIL Sheep Dog. 



But he must be restrained gradually. He must associate certain 

 acts with the approval and others with the disapproval of him he 

 respects, loves, and wishes greatly to j^lease if he only knows how. 



But such is the strength of the impulses of some puppies— 

 now, we will suppose, six or eight months old— that they find it 

 very difficult to restrain themselves. In such case we must lessen 

 the stimulus or source of excitement rather than resort at once to 

 the application of the principle of making the act unpleasant, as 

 the use of a spiked collar or check-line. 



