TO SNEEZE.
On a recent visit to a friend we came across a dog who would sneeze in a most natural manner whenever his master said, “Sneeze, Zip.” This being the only example of a dog performing this trick which we had ever seen we desired our friend to give us some particulars of the manner of teaching the trick, which he obligingly did, to this effect: “One afternoon, having nothing more important to do, I was amusing myself by bothering Zip with a long feather which I poked in his face, to induce him to snap at it. While doing this I by chance tickled his nose, he immediately commenced sneezing. Once commenced, it seemed as though he would never stop, and I said, rather sarcastically, ‘Sneeze, Zip.’ I don’t suppose my words had any effect, but he certainly did sneeze; this gave me the idea of teaching him to repeat it at my bidding. Armed with my feather I commenced operations; tickling his nose gently each time I repeated the command. He didn’t like the feather very well, and by-and-by, as though his imagination foreshadowed its effects, he would sneeze on having it pointed in close proximity to his nose. At odd times when I had a little idle time on my hands, I repeated the exercise, and the dog in a few weeks would sneeze very creditably when I commanded. I was in the habit of rewarding every first rate sneeze with a butter cracker, of which Zip was very fond. Zip has since had the reputation of suffering from severe colds in the head.”
This was the only special accomplishment which Zip possessed, and whether this was the result of peculiarly sensitive olfactory organs or his master’s training we are unable to say. Of the merits of the latter we are not prepared to speak, having never given the system an actual trial, but we should imagine that such a course might succeed.