VI 

 ANIMAL TRAINING AND ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



It is a long time since naturalists and philoso- 

 phers maintained the doctrine that animals were 

 mere machines controlled by an inflexible and im- 

 pulsive something vaguely called "instinct." All 

 reflective men now believe that the mind of an 

 animal differs from the human intellect only in 

 degree, and to say that brutes have no capability, 

 of comprehending new ideas, of acquiring and 

 memorizing novel information, and- therefore of 

 improving their minds, would be to go counter to 

 all human experience. 



The extent of this capability, however, remains 

 a question, and one upon which close observation 

 of our domestic animals, our pets, and particularly 

 of those animals trained for the amusement of the 

 public, is calculated to throw much light. The 

 study of wild animals in their native haunts may 

 inform us what progress each has made in adapt- 

 ing itself to the natural conditions of its life ; but 

 the study of tamed animals, placed under new con- 

 ditions and influences, will show whether these 

 are capable of further or, at any rate, divergent 



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