THE SHEPHERD'S DOG. 



233 



which it is brought up, the Sheep-dog is perhaps the most untiring of our domesticated 

 animals. 



There are many breeds of this animal, differing from each other in color and aspect, and 

 deriving their varied forms from the Dog with which the family has been crossed. Nearly 

 all the sporting Dogs are used for this purpose, so that some Sheep-dogs have something of 

 the pointer nature in them, others of the foxhound, and others of the setter. This last cross 

 is the most common. Together with the outward form, the creature inherits much of the sport- 

 ing predilections of its ancestry, and is capable of being trained into a capital sporting Dog. 



Many of these animals are sad double-dealers in their characters, being by day most 

 respectable Sheep-dogs, and by night most disreputable poachers. The mixed offspring of 

 a Sheep-dog and a setter is as silently successful in discovering and marking game by night as 

 he is openly useful in managing the flocks by day. As he spends the whole of his time in the 



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SHEPHERD'S DOG — C'anis famiUaris pecuarius. 



society of his master, and learns from long companionship to comprehend the least gesture of 

 hand or tone of voice, he is far better adapted for nocturnal poaching than the more legitimate 

 setter or retriever, and causes far more deadly havoc among the furred and feathered game. 

 Moreover, he often escapes the suspicion of the gamekeeper by his quiet and honorable 

 demeanor during the daytime, and Ms devotion to his arduous task of guarding the fold, and 

 reclaiming its wandering members. It seems hardly possible that an animal which works so 

 hard during the day should be able to pass the night in beating for game. 



Sometimes there is an infusion of the bull-dog blood into the Sheep-dog, but this mixture 

 is thought to be unadvisable, as such Dogs are too apt to bite their charge, and so to alienate 

 from themselves the confidence of the helpless creatures whom they are intended to protect, 

 and not to injure. Unless the sheep can feel that the Dog is, next to the shepherd, their best 

 friend, the chief value of the animal is lost. 



It is well observed by Mr. Youatt, in his valuable work on these Dogs, that if the sheep 

 do not crowd round the Dog when they are alarmed, and place themselves under his protection, 

 there is something radically wrong in the management of the flock. He remarks, that the 

 Dog will seldom, if ever, bite a sheep, unless incited to do so by its master, and suggests that 



