402 - THE MEXICAN" SHEEP DOG. 



Lyraan, in the third volume of the American Agriculturist : 

 " Although Mr. Kendall and some other writers have 

 described this wonderful animal as a cross of the Newfound- 

 land dog, such, I think, cannot be the fact : on the contrary, 

 I have no doubt he is a genuine descendant of the Alpine 

 mastiff, or more properly Spanish shepherd dog, introduced 

 by them at the time of the Conquest. He is only to be found 

 in the sheep-raising districts of New Mexico. The other 

 Mexican dogs, which number more than a thousand to one of 

 these noble animals, are the results of a cross of everything 

 under the sun having any affinity to the canine race, and even 

 of a still nobler class of animals if Mexican stories are to 

 be credited. It is believed in Mexico, that the countless 

 mongrels of that country owe their origin to the assistance 

 of the various kinds of wolves, mountain cats, lynxes, and to 

 almost if not every class of four-footed carnivorous animals. 

 Be this as it may, those who have not seen them can believe 

 as much as they like ; but eye-witnesses can assert, that there 

 never was a country blessed with a greater and more abundant 

 variety of miserable, snarling, cowardly packs, than the 

 mongrel dogs of Mexico. That country of a surety would 

 be the plague-spot of this beautiful world, were it not for 

 the redeeming character of the truly noble shepherd dog, 

 endowed as it is with almost human intellect. I have often 

 thought, when observing the sagacity of this animal, that if 

 very many of the human race possessed one-half of the power 

 of inductive reasoning which seems to be the gift of this 

 animal, that it would be far better for themselves and for 

 their fellow creatures. 



" The peculiar education of these dogs is one of the most 

 important and interesting steps pursued by the shepherd. 

 His method is to select from a multitude of pups a few of the 

 healthiest and finest-looking, and to put them to a sucking 

 ewe, first depriving her of her own lamb. By force, as well 

 as from natural desire she has to be relived of the contents 

 of her udder, she soon learns to look upon the little interlopers 

 with all the affection she would manifest for her own natural 

 offspring. For the first few days the pups are kept in the 

 hut, the ewe suckling them morning and evening only ; but 

 gradually, as she becomes accustomed to their sight, she is 

 allowed to run in a small inclosure with them until she 

 becomes so pei'fectly familiar with their appearance as to 

 take the entire charge of them. After this they are folded 

 with the whole flock for a fortnight or so, they then run about 





