302 DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



by my knowing and respecting the natural temperament 

 of the beast with which I have to interfere. 



This natural respect /or the feelings of a most affec- 

 tionate creature, with such a power of observation as will 

 enable the individual to recognise the presence of lamenta- 

 ble sickness in an animal that has with truth been called 

 " the companion of the home," shall at all times enable 

 the uneducated in such matters to recognise a mad dog, 

 and, unless luck be dead against the individual, save him 

 from being bitten. 



It is no pleasure to a dog to go mad. Quite the 

 reverse. Dreadful as hydrophobia may be to the human 

 being, rabies is worse to the dog. It makes its approach 

 more gradually. It lasts longer, and it is more intense 

 while it endures. The dog that is going mad, feels 

 unwell for a long time prior to the full development of 

 the disease. He is very ill, but he does not know what 

 ails him. He feels nasty ; dissatisfied with everything ; 

 vexed without a reason ; and, greatly against his better 

 nature, very snappish. Feeling thus, he longs to avoid 

 all annoyance by being alone. This makes him seem 

 strange to those who are most accustomed to him. 



The sensation induces him to seek solitude. But 

 there is another reason which decides his choice of a rest- 

 ing-place. The light inflicts upon him intense agony. 

 The sun is to him an instrument of torture, which he 

 therefore studies to avoid, for his brain aches and feels as 

 it were a trembling jelly. This induces the poor brute to 

 find out the holes and corners where he is least likely to 



