INSTINCT OF DOGS. 123 



There is another reason why sporting dogs appear more 

 deficient in sense than some others, and that is their mode 

 of life. Confined always in the kennel unless when seeking 

 game, all their powers are employed to this end. There 

 are, however, abundant proofs, that when made companions, 

 and suffered to occupy a place upon the hearth-rug, they are 

 capable of the same attachment, and would equal in sagacity 

 the much lauded dogs of St Bernard.* Indeed, the usual mode 

 of imprisoning sporting dogs is so great a disadvantage, that 

 I have seen some with excellent noses and every requisite 

 for the moors, grow sulky, and refuse to hunt with their 

 usual freeness, unless left in a great measure to themselves. 

 This, I know, arose partly from a want of proper manage- 

 ment, and not keeping the medium between encouraging 

 kindness and merited correction ; for too much lenity is nearly 

 as injurious to a dog as over severity : sulkiness will often be 

 the effect in the one case, shyness in the other. Still, if the 

 dog were allowed to be the companion of his master, he would 

 both acquire sense and tact in half the time, and would not give 

 half the trouble either by shyness or sulkiness ; whereas it 

 will generally be found, that a kennel dog is long past his 

 best before he excels in that sagacity on the moor which so 

 greatly assists him in finding game. Even the veriest village 

 cur, when kindly treated and permitted to bask at the " ingle- 

 nook," will learn all sorts of tricks, many of them requiring 

 as much reflection as the most intricate duties of the shep- 

 herd's dog. I had a little cocker reared in a cottage, that of 



* May we not be allowed to suppose the dog in Helvellyn, whose attachment to 

 its dead master was thought a fit subject for their muse by two great poets of the 

 day, was of the sporting kind ? at all events it was " not of mountain breed .'! " 



