INTELLIGENCE OF DOGS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 30 July 1937, Page 3

INTELLIGENCE OF DOGS.

DEVELOPMENT BY TRAINING. guides for the blind. The kennel correspondent of the London Times writes From time to time accounts appear in the Press of remarkahle examples of intelligence in dogs, most of which could he equalled |,v° cases that have occurred within one’s own experience. The following is an example within the knowledge of the writer. While we were living in an hotel in Surrey our Alsatian Ben assumed protection of a dachshund

which was also there, though liis friendship was usually received with aloofness. Late one evening the dachshund’s owner asked: “What is the matter with Ben? Do you think he wants a drink? He has come up to me in an agitated way several times and pushed in© with his nose.” At that moment barking was heard from a high bank covered with bushes, and investigation showed that the dachshund had become imprisoned under some wire netting from which Ben was trying, to release her-by pulling at her neck. It was evident that he had desired to inform her mistress of her predicament.

VARIETIES OF ABILITY. This Alsatian frequently displayed his intelligence in other ways. When out for a country walk occasionally I have been uncertain about which of two diverging paths to take on my return. All that was necessary was to tell the dog to go on. His sense of locality was invariably superior to mine. Dogs vary a good deal in their mental abilitv. A certain proportion of those sent to the headquarters of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association have to he rejected, a trial revealing that they are deficient either in sagacity or temperament and are thus unsuitable for the intensive training required before they can he entrusted with the responsible duty of leading sightless persons through crowded streets When they are efficient it is wonderful to 6ee what they are capable of doing. Men of every generation have observed the intelligence of dogs. Izaak Walton asked: “And for the dogs that we use, wdio can commend their excellency to that height which they deserve ?” • EDUCATED ANIMALS.

Montaigne marvelled at the cleverness of those that led the blind—how they stopped at doors where they were wont to receive alms; how carefully they -avoided carts and coaches; how they drew their masters along the centre of a path in order to keep them out of a ditch. “How could a man make the dog conceive his charge was only td look to his master's safety, ami for his service to despise his own commodity and good?” The answer to that, question is “Education.” Dogs are largely what we make them. Great changes have occurred in the status of dogs in the last 10 years, largely owing to (he educational campaign carried on by the Tail-Wag-gcrs’ Club, which now has a membership of nearlv 700 000. One of the objects of the club is to encourage ordinary men and women to make their dogs orderly members of society by training them in the ways of obedience.