Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1895 — Imaginative Animals. [ARTICLE]

Imaginative Animals.

The other week I spoke of the power of imagination. A friend tells me that dogs are as much under its influence as men, and he has, in consequence, discovered a method by which a tenderhearted man can bring up his cog in the way it should go without unnecessary suffering to either party. My friend’s method is to keep in his yard a big butter-tub and a thick stick. When his dog has misbehaved he chains it up close to the tub. gives it a couple of cuts with the stick, scolds it energetically, and then sets to work to larrup the barrel. With every blow that falls upon the tub the dog howls and struggles. By the time my friend has worn himself out upon the barrel the dog lias received all the moral good that could have been afforded him by a thundering good whipping, and is repentant and conscience-stricken for the next three days. In fact, the imaginative animal fancies that he really has had a beating, and is as sorry for himself as if he had been half killed. My friend’s motto is, “Spare the tub and spoil the dog.” Being a kind man, he hated the severity that is necessary to the training of animals, and ids discovery has removed a great burden from his mind. He can punish his dog and immediately after sit down and enjoy his dinner—a thing that, in the old days, could not be thought of. He tells me that he has never found the plan to miscarry, and he lias tried it on dozens of dogs.—Jerome K. Jerome.