INSTINCT OF DOGS. 125 



The Newfoundland and water-dog are generally reckoned 

 paragons of sagacity ; but has their treatment nothing to do 

 with this ? From their earliest days taught to fetch and 

 carry, and never leaving their master's side, they learn to 

 understand his least signal, and from constant practice some- 

 times even anticipate his will. This is also precisely the case 

 with the colley ; as soon as it is able, made to follow the shep- 

 herd to the hill, and from every-day habit always on the alert 

 to please him, it daily acquires greater dexterity both in com- 

 prehending and obeying, till at last it can perform feats that 

 perfectly astonish those who have not seen the gradual pro- 

 cess. My retriever, already mentioned, has given many proofs 

 of sagacity which have excited the admiration of those pre- 

 sent ; and yet I don't consider him at all more knowing than 

 the ol d pointer, whose cut I have likewise given. A super- 

 ficial observer would wonder at the comparison ; but, inde- 

 pendent of the tact and ingenuity displayed by the pointer in 

 finding game, I feel convinced that if his educational advan- 

 tages and temper had been the same as the retriever's, he 

 would have equalled him in his own beat. 



To illustrate my meaning, I may mention a feat or two of 

 each. Having wounded a rabbit on the moors when the 

 pointer was behind a knoll, but fancying, from the agility 

 with which it made its escape, that I had missed it altogether, 

 I was surprised to see him shortly afterwards bring a rabbit 

 and deliberately lay it down at my feet. It would have been 

 nothing if the dog had been taught to fetch and carry ; but 

 on the contrary he is, of course, broke to drop at the shot and 

 never to lay a tooth upon game. Had he seen me fire and 



