SHEPHERD DOGS. 225 



wonderful or useful characteristic of the dog is his tenacious 

 memory, by which he is able to remember all the turning 

 points in a journey of hundreds of miles, and to recognize 

 at sight every member of the flock to which he has become 

 attached. With all his good qualifications, however, he 

 sometimes lapses from virtue; and no other dog is so de- 

 structive in the fold as a sheep dog become demoralized 

 by bad companions. The Scotch and English shepherds 

 set great store by their dogs, and trials of his sagacity and 

 special training, made at the numerous fairs are a matter 

 for amazement by those not fully acquainted with his skill 

 in managing the wildest sheep. These competitions are excit- 

 ing as well as amusing. We have seen him engaged in driv- 

 ing into a small pen, a bunch of the wildest sheep known, 

 doubtless, the small agile Welsh mountain breed whose 

 jumping abilities are amazing. The test of the dog's in- 

 genuity and natural acuteness is made by giving him half 

 a dozen of these nimble and willful animals, in an open field, 

 to drive into a pen with but one narrow opening. The dog 

 is always the victor in these matches, between the two most 

 sagacious of all animals. The patient skill of the intelligent 

 animal in penning the sheep, in spite of their unwillingness, 

 is worth crossing the ocean to see. 



Unfortunately for him, he is subject to one of the worst 

 of diseases by which he is made a natural enemy of the 

 sheep he watches over so well. This is the tapeworm of sev- 

 eral species, which he harbors in his intestines, and which 

 by one of the most curious of natural transformations and 

 transmigrations, pass from the dog to the sheep. But it is 

 no difficult matter to relieve him of this parasite. This is to 

 give him at stated intervals, as is mentioned in the chapter 

 on diseases of the sheep, regular doses of worm medicine, 

 keeping him shut in during the operation of it, so that the 

 worms he discharges may be effectually destroyed. 



The shepherd's dog is indispensable to the shepherd, but 

 in procuring an animal it is necessary to get one well bred, 

 and trained if necessary, or the expected assistant may turn 

 out to be the worst enemy the flock may encounter. The 

 pure breed only should be procured, for a cross bred dog 

 may be really a damage to the flock instead of its friend and 

 protector. 



