426 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



Commnnlcation with Animals. — Sir : 



You did me tlie honor, some weeks ago, to 

 insert a letter of mine, containing sugges- 

 tions as to a method of studying the psy- 

 chology of animals, and a short account of 

 a beginning I had myself made in that di- 

 rection. 



This letter has elicited various replies 

 and suggestions which you will, perhaps, 

 allow me to answer, and I may also take 

 the opportunity of stating the progress 

 which my dog " Yan " has made, although, 

 owing greatly, no doubt, to my frequent 

 absences from home and the little time I 

 can devote to him, this has not been so 

 rapid as, I doubt not, would otherwise have 

 been the case. Perhaps I may just repeat 

 that the essence of my idea was to have 

 various words such as "food," "bone," 

 "water," "out," etc., printed on pieces of 

 card-board, and, after some preliminary 

 training, to give the dog anything for which 

 he asked by bringing a card. I use pieces 

 of card-board about ten inches long and 

 three inches high, placing a number of them 

 on the floor, side by side, so that the dog 

 has several cards to select from, each bear- 

 ing a different word. 



One correspondent has suggested that it 

 would be better to use variously-colored 

 cards. This might, no doubt, render the first 

 steps rather more easy, but, on th e other hand, 

 any temporary advantage gained would be 

 at the expense of subsequent difficulty, since 

 the pupil would very likely begin by asso- 

 ciating the object with the color, rather 

 than with the letters. lie would, there- 

 fore, as is too often the case with our own 

 children, have the unnecessary labor of un- 

 learning some of his first lessons. At the 

 same time, the experiment would have an 

 interest as a test of the color-sense in dogs. 



Another suggestion has been that, in- 

 stead of words, pictorial representations 

 should be placed on the cards. This, how- 

 ever, could only be done with material ob- 

 jects, such as "food," "bone," "water," 

 etc., and would not be applicable to such 

 words as " out," " pet me," etc. ; nor even 

 as regards the former class do I see that it 

 would present any substantial advantage. 



Again, it has been suggested that " Van " 

 is led by scent rather than by sight. He 

 has, no doubt, an excellent nose, but in this 



case he is certainly guided by the eye. The 

 cards are all handled by us, and must emit 

 very nearly the same odor. I do not, how- 

 ever, rely on this, but have in use a num- 

 ber of cards bearing the same word. When, 

 for instance, he has brought a card with 

 " food " on it, we do not put down the same 

 identical card, but another with the same 

 word ; when he has brought that, a third is 

 put down, and so on. For a single meal, 

 therefore, eight or ten cards will have been 

 used, and it seems clear, therefore, that in 

 selecting them "Van" must be guided by 

 the letters. 



When I last wrote I had satisfied my- 

 self that he had learned to regard the bring- 

 ing of a card as a request, and that he could 

 distinguish a card with the word " food " on 

 it from a plain one ; while I believed that 

 he could distinguish between a card with 

 "food" on it and one with "out" on it. 



I have now no doubt that he can dis- 

 tinguish between different words. For in- 

 stance, when he is hungry he will bring a 

 " food " card time after time until he has had 

 enough, and then he lies down quietly for a 

 nap. Again, when I am going for a walk, 

 and invite him to come, he gladly responds 

 by picking up the " out " card, and running 

 triumphantly with it before me to the front 

 door. In the same way he knows the bone 

 card quite well. As regards water (which 

 I spell phonetically so as not to confuse him 

 unnecessarily), I keep a card always on the 

 floor in my dressing-room, and whenever he 

 is thirsty he goes off there, without any sug- 

 gestion from me, and brings the card with 

 perfect gravity. At the same time he is 

 fond of a game, and if he is playful or ex- 

 cited will occasionally run about with any 

 card. If, through inadvertence, he brings 

 a card for something he does not want, 

 when the corresponding object is sho^n 

 him, he seizes the card, takes it back again, 

 and fetches the right one. No one who has 

 seen him look along a row of cards, and 

 select the right one, can, I think, doubt that 

 in bringing a card he feels that he is mak- 

 ing a request, and that he can not only per- 

 fectly distinguish between one word and 

 another, but also associates the word and 

 the object. 



I do not for a moment say that "Van" 

 thus shows more intelligence than has been 



