TRICKS ABLY PERFORMED.
153. “Carrying” is a pretty—occasionally, as we see, a useful—trick, but it does not further any sporting object. “Carrying” and “fetching” are essentially different. The object chiefly sought in the latter is to make the dog deliver expeditiously ([107]),—in the former, to make him carry perseveringly for miles and miles. To inculcate carrying, always make him suppose that you greatly regard what is confided to his charge. Many a good carrier is spoiled by children picking up any stick and giving it to him. He has the sense to know that it is valueless, and when he is tired of the fun, he drops it unrebuked, and, after a time, is supplied with another. If you practise a pup in carrying a stick, show more discretion than to let it be so long that it must jar against his teeth by trailing on the ground, or hitting the walls.
154. Being on the subject of tricks, as several ladies have done me the unexpected but highly appreciated honour of reading what I have said respecting their four-footed attendants, I think it as well to observe, should they be tempted to teach a favourite any accomplishments, that these should be practised occasionally, or they may be forgotten, (all the sooner, like more serious studies, the more easily they were acquired;) and that the exhibition of them might be made much more effective and striking by a little exercise, on the ladies’ part, of the address and tact with which Dame Nature has so liberally endowed them.
155. Quite a sensation was created many years ago, at Tonbridge Wells, by the Hon. C. D——s, who possessed a dog which had been taught by a former master, for very unlawful purposes, to fetch, when ordered, any article to which his owner had slily directed the animal’s attention.
156. The gentleman was walking up and down the crowded Pantiles, listening to the public band, and playing the agreeable to a titled lady, whom he subsequently married; when, bowing to some passing acquaintance, he casually observed, “How badly my hat has been brushed!” at the same time giving the private signal to the dog, who instantly ran off to one of the adjacent toy-shops, and brought away the hat-brush which his master had pointed out to him about a quarter of an hour before.
157. As Mr. D——s kept his own counsel, the lady and many of their friends, as well as the pursuing shopman, fancied the dog had sufficient intelligence to understand what had been said, and had, from his own sagacity, volunteered fetching what he conceived was required.
158. The barrack-rooms at Gibraltar used not to be furnished with bells. An officer of the Artillery, quartered on the Rock while I was there, and, by-the-bye, so good a player at draughts, that he used to aver—and his unusual skill seemed to prove the correctness of the assertion—that, if he had the first move, he could win to a certainty, was accustomed to summon his servant by sending his dog for him. On getting the signal, away the Maltese poodle would go, not much impeded by closed doors in that hot climate, and, by a bark, inform the man that he was wanted.
159. The daily routine of a quiet bachelor’s life is so unvaried in those barracks, that the servant could generally guess what was required; and visitors were often surprised at hearing the officer (Major F——e) say to his dog, “Tell John to bring my sword and cap,” or “the breakfast,” &c. and still more surprised at seeing that such orders were punctually obeyed.
ELEPHANT’S TRICKS.
160. But for exhibiting tricks with effect doubtless my old warm-hearted friend K——g, (elsewhere mentioned [450],) bears off the palm. He brought two young elephants to England from Ceylon; one he secured when it was a mere baby, and would not quit the side of its dam after he had shot her. The other was about seven feet high. He had taught them several tricks before they embarked, and during the long voyage home, passed on deck, they had learned many others from the sailors, and, when needed, would usefully help in giving “a long pull,—a strong pull,—and a pull all together.”