14 ART OF TRAINING ANIMALS. 



native dogs have learned to avoid this danger and they invariably 

 l:eep from the front, and attack from the side or rear. 



Instances might be multiplied indefinitely, but our object is 

 ( nly to show the distinction made between reason and instinct ; 

 those who desire to investigate the subject more thoroughly 

 can do so through works speciall}^ devoted to natural history. 

 No doubt any observing person caii recall instances in his own 

 ex[)eriencewith animals, where their actions showed evidence of 

 a greater or less degree of reasoning power. 



An action may be partly instinctive and partly the result of 

 reasoning, but a purely instinctive action never changes except 

 under the influence of reason. A hen sits on her eggs from an 

 instinctive impulse to do so. If chalk ones be substituted for 

 the real eggs she tends them with equal care and will not desert 

 them any sooner than she would the others. And yet in other 

 matters perhaps hens have reasoning powers. 



Without the possession of these powers we believe no educa- 

 tion of animals would be possible ; and we farther believe that 

 the capacity for learning is in exact proportion to the ability to 

 reason. A horse or dog can be readily taught things which a 

 hog can never learn, and in the lower scales of animal life all 

 attempts at education become failures. Under the tuition of 

 man the reasoning powers are undoubtedly developed to an 

 extent to which they would never attain in a state of nature, 

 and by judicious and persistent teaching numerous animals have 

 been educated to an almost startling degree. How this has 

 been done we shall show as we proceed. 



Not only does the amount of reason vary with different species 

 but with different individuals of the same species, and much of 

 the trainer's success will depend on the judicious selection of his 

 pupil. Professional trainers take the utmost pains in this 

 selection, and they usually consider that the descendants of an 

 educated animal have, by inheritance, a greater aptitude for 

 learning than others. 



The young trainer must not fall into the mistaken notion that 

 mere quickness in picking up a trick is the best quality in an ani- 

 mal. There may be such a thing as learning a lesson too rapidly, 

 .nnd what is learned with but slight effort is sometimes forgotten 

 v;ith equal readiness. Another thing, too much should not be 

 expected of one pupil. Public exhibitors are able to show a 

 large array of tricks because of the number of animals they 

 have, each, as a rule, knowing a comparatively few of these 

 tricks, or, in the case of some of the "sensation" tricks, perhaps 

 only one. Still any animal of ordinary capacity ought, with 

 proper tuition, to be able to learn a sufficient variety to satifsy 



