BREAKING AND HANDLING. 379 



without pain respectively; next, he associates the act with a 

 certain sound, called a command, with the same concomi- 

 tants of pain or its absence; next, he learns to perform the 

 act in a certain manner, and comprehends the relations of 

 the different elements; thus he must consider the object to 

 be retrieved, the act of retrieving, the manner of perform- 

 ing it, the command to perform it, the painful consequences 

 of non-performance, the freedom from pain consequent on 

 performance and the relations of the different parts. Af- 

 ter a longer or shorter time contingent on the intelligence 

 and willingness of the dog, skill of the tutor, etc., the inter- 

 mediate element of punishment is unnecessary, and he asso- 

 ciates the performance of the act with the necessary com- 

 mand; thus the act which in its inception was associated 

 with punishment, and the command which was also asso- 

 C'ated with punishment, are then associated together inde- 

 pendently of punishment. His acts thus intelligently con- 

 cur with the extent of his experience, and as it enlarges, his 

 comprehension expands with it. 



These acts, although performed intelligently, are com- 

 monly attributed to an association of ideas, meaning there- 

 by that they are not arrived at by any process of reason; but 

 this common belief is erroneously opposed to their true 

 meaning. An association of ideas may relate to a percep- 

 tion of cause and effect quite as much as to two material 

 objects. An association of ideas presupposes the existence 

 of ideas, and therefore mind. The fact that the dog can 

 comprehend these relations as they apply to the simple act 

 of retrieving, and, when subsequently afforded opportu- 

 nities, comprehends its purposes and applies it intelligently in 

 actual work, cannot be ascribed to an association of ideas 

 which are independent of all ideas; nor can it be ascribed 

 to the force of habit called mechanical. Acts which are so 

 frequently and habitually performed as to be done without 



