Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1875 — Intelligence of Dogs. [ARTICLE]

Intelligence of Dogs.

A friend and admirer of the canine race contributes the following to London Society: A few feet from me at this moment is a curious specimen of the long-backed, short-legged German hound, yclept a turnspit, which came to the establishment a silent, reserved, even dull being.. But on fair encouragement his faculties became developed. He showed signs of a humorous disposition—as though he could relish a jest—and began to utter mysteriously uncouth and cavernous sounds, as though laboring to find an utterance. These began gradually to take the shape of expostulation, angry remonstrance, piteous entreaty, weariness, to say nothing of literal yawns when he was’bored. They are wonderful creatures, even in London, -with curious puzzling ways of their own. Thus, lately, one dark night the writer, entering a hansom cab, was duly incased within the glass and shutters. As the vehicle shot off on its course something white appeared to flash on the footboard front, which by and by resolved itself into the outline of a grayish-white cur dog, who had.lqaped up in a half-professional way, much as the little tigers of another generation used to skip up behind the cabriolet. There this curious creature remained, poising itself at the edge, like some spectral dog, and balancing itself with ease, as a circus rider would. When the cab stopped he was gone as suddenly as he came. “Oh! he were there, were he?” the driver merely exclaimed. It turned out that this lean and unkempt pariah had drawn near the cab a few nights before, had received less churlish greeting than what he was accustomed to, and had attached himself to the cab ifi this mysterious way and was now actually to be seen hovering in the shadow afar off. There was something ghostly in the fashion in which he came out of the night and appeared upon the footboard. Again: I was once acquainted Sth a dog that had no less a singular nchant for seeing a train pass under an arch at a particular hour each day. Punctually at five o’clock he would rouse himself and set off at full speed to keep his appointment, using cunning devices when he suspected he might be detained. Having seen his train go by, and looked down with a wary and critical air to see that the passage was performed properly, he

jogged home with a contented mind. How did he know the hour so exactly? Again: Every morning there comes to the door one of the neatest, lightest, best-appointed little traps conceivable in the service of our butter man. It is drawn by a frisky, waggish little pony, evidently a pet, andon the pony’s back rides a vivacious little terrier, who, from practice, can balance himself in a secure and dashing style. Both pony and terrier understand each other, though the terrier capers about the pony’s neck in an inconvenient fashion. On cold days pony has his cloth, while terrier has a miniature covering of the same kind, securely fitted to his person. When the butter man comes up the area the sly pair are watching him, and if, in his hurry, he incautiously slams the back door of his cart, a pretense is made of accepting the noise as a signal, and off starts pony galloping, terrier barking and almost erect on pony’s neek, while the driver is running along frantically striving to climb into his vehicle dis it goes. Another dog, a red Irish retriever, whose acquaintance was made lately, was sent down forty miles into Kent,’;shut up in a dog box. On his first day’s .sport he took offense at the keeper using# whip to him, a freedom he perhaps thought was not justified by so short an acquaintance. The following morning he Was at the door of his house in Victoria strefet! How was this accomplished? He must have come straight across the country, guided by some faculty that his two-legged superiors have not.