ACCUSTOMING THE SHEEP TO THE DOG, 411 



Accustoming the Sheep to the Dog. — It is a mistake 

 to suppose that a trained sheep dog will manage any strange 

 flock, however wild and unaccustomed to such company. 

 The sheep must be gradually made acquainted with, and 

 accustomed to, the dog. They must know — and they will 

 readily learn it — that he is their friend, their guardian and 

 protector, instead of that hereditary enemy which their 

 instinct teaches them to fly from. A want of knowledge of 

 this fact has frequently led to disappointment and disgust, to 

 a giving up of the valuable dog which it has cost pains and 

 money to procure. My friend, the late Col. John S. Skinner, 

 related to me a ludicrous accident which befel President 

 Jefierson, or rather his sheep dogs, when he undertook to 

 show ofi" some newly imported ones, a la philosopher^ 

 without being apprized of the above-mentioned fact. 

 The tale is told in my Sheep Husbandry in the South. The 

 comedy turns on the fact that the great political sage took 

 out some admiring visitors to witness the wonderful exploits 

 of his dogs : " let " them " slip " on some raw ovine subjects, 

 whereupon the latter dashed themselves over precipices, &c. : 

 and the " valuable dog which it had cost pains and money to 

 procure," was so mortified at the proceeding that he ran the 

 other way, was never again heard of, and is supposed by 

 some to be running to this day ! 



As in the case of so many " good stories," there was not 

 a word of truth in it ! Some years after my publication of it, 

 I chanced to be in conversation with Mr. Jefferson's family 

 on this very subject and learned that the dogs were sent to 

 him from France — that they were admirably broken and 

 possessed almost human intelligence — that neither of them 

 ever brought man or beast to grief, except that the bitch, 

 who took it upon herself to herd the hens every night, insisted 

 on doing it about half an hour before the latter wished to 

 retire for the night — and they sometimes made loud com- 

 plaints on the subject! 



