162 THE DOG IN HEALTH. 



environment. We can make that environment pretty 

 much what we will ; and with the dog, his master from the 

 first, and always, is the principal factor. 



Two extreme views have for a long period been enter- 

 tained in regard to the training of the dog : the one 

 that he is a wild, wayward creature to be " broken," the 

 other that he needs no special correction if properly taught 

 from the first. Neither is quite correct. 



A puppy full of life tends to do exactly as his im- 

 pulses urge him, till the highest motive power, a desire 

 to please his master, is substituted. It follows that a 

 puppy can not be too soon led to understand that he has 

 a master kind, honest, intelligent, and firm. He must 

 be consistent with his puppy. All caprice is fatal; it 

 utterly confuses and demoralizes the dog. 



Remembering, as we indicated long ago, that the dog 

 is very like ourselves, we can suggest a few principles 

 for training that we think will meet the test of experi- 

 ence. The puppy at one period is like a young infant, 

 later like a two-year-old child, and at the best most dogs 

 never get beyond the intelligence of a young child in 

 most respects, though in some qualities the wisest man is 

 far behind the dog. 



For practical purposes the puppy may be treated as an 

 infant, but as a rapidly developing one. He gets his in- 

 formation through his senses, and his training must be 

 related to this, and to the fact that he is a creature with 

 strong impulses but of little self-control. 



It is a well-established law of the nervous system, 

 that what has happened once is likely to occur again 

 tinder the same circumstances ; hence in the training of 



