Were the purpose of this work that of accumulating anecdotes of animal intelligence, this would be the place to let loose a flood of facts, which might all be well attested, relating to the high intelligence of dogs. But as my aim is rather that of suppressing anecdotes, except in so far as facts are required to prove the presence in animals of the sundry psychological faculties which I believe the different classes to present, I shall here, as elsewhere, follow the method of not multiplying anecdotes further than seems necessary fully to demonstrate the highest level of intelligence to which the animal under consideration can certainly be said to attain. But in order that any who read these pages for the sake of the anecdotes which they necessarily present may not be disappointed by meeting with cases already known to them, I shall draw my material mainly from the facts communicated to me by private correspondents, alluding to previously published facts only as supplementary to those now published for the first time. It may be well to explain to my numerous correspondents that I select the following cases for quoting, not because they are the most sensational that I have received, but rather because they either contain nothing sufficiently exceptional to excite the criticism of incredulity, or because they happen to have been corroborated by the more or less similar cases which I quote from other correspondents.
As showing the high general intelligence of the dog, I shall first begin with the collie. It is certain that many of these dogs can be trusted to gather and drive sheep without supervision. It is enough on this head to refer to the well-known anecdotes of the poet Hogg in his 'Shepherd's Calendar,' concerning his dog 'Sirrah.'
Williams, in his book on 'Dogs and their Ways,' says (p. 124) that a friend of his had a collie which, whenever his master said the words 'Cast, cast,' would run off to seek any sheep that might be cast, and on finding it would at once assist it to rise. He also knew of another dog (p. 102), which would perform the same office even in the absence of his master, going the round of the fields and pastures by himself to right all the sheep that he found to be cast.[266]
One of my correspondents (Mr. Laurie Gentles) sends me an account of a sheep-dog belonging to a friend of his (Mr. Mitchell, of Inverness-shire) which strayed to a neighbouring farm, and took up his residence with the farmer. On the second night after the dog arrived at the farm the farmer 'took the dog down to the meadow to see if the cattle were all right. To his dismay he found that the fence between his meadow and his neighbour's had got broken down, and that the whole of his neighbour's cattle had got mixed up with his. By the help of the dog the strange cattle were driven back into their proper meadow, and the fence put into temporary repair. The next night, at the same hour, the gentleman started off to look after the cattle. The dog, however, was not to be seen. On arriving at the meadow, what was the gentleman's astonishment to find that the dog had preceded him! His astonishment soon changed into delighted approbation when he found the dog sitting on the broken fence between the two meadows, and daring the cattle from either side to cross. The cattle had during the interval between the first and second visits broken down the fence, and had got mixed up with each other. The dog had quietly gone off on his own account to see if all was right, and finding a similar accident to the one the previous evening, had alone and unaided driven back the strange cattle to their proper meadow, and had mounted guard over the broken fence as I have already indicated.'
Colonel Hamilton Smith says that the cattle-dogs of Cuba and Terra Firma are very wise in managing cattle, but require to display different tactics from the cattle-dogs of Europe:—
When vessels with live stock arrive at any of the West India harbours, these animals, some of which are nearly as large as mastiffs, are wonderfully efficient in assisting to land the cargo. The oxen are hoisted out with a sling passing round the base of their horns; and when an ox, thus suspended by the head, is lowered, and allowed to fall into the water, so that it may swim to land, men sometimes swim by the side of it and guide it, but they have often dogs of this breed which will perform the service equally well; for, catching the perplexed animal by the ears, one on each side, they will force it to swim in the direction of the landing-place, and instantly let go their hold when they feel it touch the ground, as the ox will then naturally walk out of the water by itself.[267]
That this sagacity need not be due to special tuition, may be inferred from a closely similar display spontaneously shown in the following case. It is communicated to me by a correspondent, Mr. A. H. Browning. This gentleman was looking at a litter of young pigs in their sty, and when he went away the door of the sty was inadvertently left unfastened. The pigs all escaped into his garden. My correspondent then proceeds:—
My attention was called to my dog appearing in a great state of excitement, not barking (he seldom barks), but whining and performing all sorts of antics (in a human subject I should have said 'gesticulating'). The herdmen and myself returned to the sty; we caught but one pig, and put him back; no sooner had we done so than the dog ran after each pig in succession, brought him back to the sty by the ear, and then went after another, until the whole number were again housed.
In Lord Brougham's 'Dialogues on Instinct' (iii.) there is narrated the story told to the author by Lord Truro of a dog that used to worry sheep at night. The animal quietly submitted to be tied up in the evening, but when everybody was asleep he used to slip his collar, worry the sheep, and, returning before dawn, again get into his collar to avoid suspicion. I allude to this remarkable display of sagacity because I am myself able fully to corroborate it by precisely similar cases. A friend of mine (the late Mr. Sutherland Murray) had a dog which was always kept tied up at night, but nevertheless the neighbouring farmers complained of having detected him as the culprit when watching to find what dog it was that committed nightly slaughter among their sheep. My friend, therefore, set a watch upon his dog, and found that when all was still be slipped his collar, and after being absent for some hours, returned and slipped his head in again.
A precisely similar case is given further back, and others are communicated to me by two correspondents (Mr. Goodbehere, of Birmingham, and Mr. Richard Williams, of Buffalo). The latter says:—