THE KENNEL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 39

THE KENNEL.

By Tep.hor. Panders and breeders o£ dogs are cordially invited to contribute to this column. “ Terror ” will endeavour to make this department as interesting and up-to-date as possible, bat in order to do this he must have the co-operation of his readers, hence he trusts this invitation will be ohieriully responded to. Tiie dog’s consciousness is one of smell rather than of eight and- hearing. He lives in a world not of form or colour, but of an infinitude of odours—a world hard for us to realise. “Can animals think?” asks Mr Alexander Hill, of Downing College, Cambridge-, and ho answers: “Undoubtedly. They can receive, remember, and compare sensations. Can they reason? The test of reason seemed to bo the power to draw inferences from the facts of consciousness, and that appeared to be the special prerogative of man. Dr Hill had a Scottish terrier which was trained to open the lid of a box by lifting a latch. The feat became a trick; but when the box was placed in the yard, with a well-browned chop inside, the dog, though hungry, tried all sorts of means to get at the chop without ever thinking of raising the latch. He would doubtless have-' don© it if human observers had been in sight, to gain their approval, or if the chop had not been inside to- divert his attention. His intelligence was foiled when the conditions were changed. • The seeming sagacity of animals was to be explained rather by the specialised pattern of their brain than by their thinking powers. Dr Hill objected to the invocation of ininstinct to explain the wonderful doings of animals, such -as the flight of migratory birds. They had to find their way, as we had, by sight; but they possessed the faculty in a marvellous degree. The best best of intelligence in anirnails was the power of deviating from their habitual course, of not acting in the usual way when circumstances varied. To that power observation should bo directed.” “Kennel” has the following : —“By the autocratic order of the Duke of Northumberland the village of Shilbottle, near Alnwick, is dogless. The keen and sporting pitmen are AVhuppetlsss,’ and there is, consequently, much vexation and also much real sorrow. His Whippet is often the one bright thing in a collier’s life, and

if he is a rough man ho has a heart, and he can be a hero on occasion. His faults are the faults of his employment. It is difficult to know which is the more deserving of sympathy, the pitmen or the duke. I am wondering what kind of a man his Grace of Northumberland is ! At this rate we should scon all be Socialists!” JOURNALISTIC ENTERPRISE. “I have lost a dog,” said the advertiser to the editor of the Little Piffingham Daily Pioneer, “and I want you to insert this ad. for me; ‘Ten pounds reward offered for the return of a fox terrier answering to the name of “Koko.” Disappeared mysteriously in the Pifiingha-m market-place last Monday -night.’ ” The editor furrowed his brows. “Well,” he decided, “we are just going to press, sir, but we’ll be only too glad to hold the edition for your ad.” Satisfied, the advertiser returned to his hotel. But suddenly it struck him that he had forgotten to add the all-important words, “No questions asked.” Like a hare he again sped down the street to catch the edition. On arriving at the offices he. found them absolutely deserted, save for an underfed-looking office boy, gazing »wistfully out of the window. A DOG STORY. An exchange says:—“Here Is “quite a decent dog story, for which the Sydney Morning Herald is responsible. A shearer living in Sydney worked his way “out back” as far as Bourke on foot, and then made a detour towards the Queensland border. His dog was with him, of course; but when he suddenly fell sick and had to go t-o the local hospital the dog was left in charge of another shearer, who was camping at a place about 600 miles from Sydney by the ordinary road. The dog waited some time for his master, and then decided to make for home himself; and the shearer’s wife, opening her back door one morning in Sydney, found the dog waiting on ■ the step. He had walked the whole 600 miles without anyone to guide him, and had apparently enjoyed himself very well. This is pretty good; but it doesn’t come quite up to a pigeon story which I believe the Argus produced as a set-off to the S.M. Herald’s yarn. A Sydney pigeon fancier sold half a dozen of his best “homers” to a Melbourne man, and advised his client to clip the wings of the birds till thev get used to their now home. Two days after came a wire from the Melbourne man to say that the pigeons had disappeared; and six weeks later the Sydney fancier, standing on his verandah in the evening, saw the six pigeons pace slowly and solemnly up his garden walk and range themselves in a row before him. Their wings were clipped, and they couldn’t fly; but they had walked all the way from Melbourne. Next, please!” The writer evidently disbelieves the story of the shearer’s dog, showing that he has a lot to learn about man’s best friend. THE DOG AS A DETECTIVE. A remarkable instance of the usefulness of police dogs in clearing up oven an- attempted crime is recorded in the Berlin papers. It will be remembered that in recent years on several occasions attempts have been made to wreck the fast train travelling between Berlin and Alexandre wo, on the Russian frontier. The other day a further attempt of the same kind was made, and -an appalling disaster was only averted by the discovery, made a few minutes before the train was due to- reach a certain isolated ‘spot on the hue, that the bolts of two sleepers had been loosened and the rails lifted out of their places. Owing to the distance of the spot from the nearest station it was almost certain that had l the express been derailed', it would have been crashed into by the slow train which follows over the same metals a few minutes later. The police were quite unable to detect any traces of the man or men responsible. The only clue was a wooden lever left beside the line at some distance from the spot, but this in. itself was hardly of any value, because it is not an uncommon thing to see such rough levers lying where they have, been left by navvies at the end of the day. But a police dog (the famous Fri.t-ka) was brought from Berlin, and given a scent of the wooden lever. At once the dog made off through the trees and across open fields to a small village of a few houses at some considerable distance from the scene of the attempted crime. The dog stopped, before the house of a' certain man named Wallnkika, and going round to a sort of yard, the dog snuffed about in a rubbish heap, finally unearthing a screw driver, which examination shewed could at any rate have been used for loosening the bolts. Wallnicka was asked whether he had been anywhere near the line, but at first denied! it. However, he was subsequently confronted with a woman, who declared she had seen him going in the direction of the railway sometime before the express was due to arrive. Wallnicka now admitted that he had walked in that direction, but denied that he had any connection with the lever. In order to test this matter the dog was taken back to the scene of the intended outrage, and again given the handle of the wooden lever to snuff. Wallnicka meantime was mixed up in a crowd of persons at some distance. Immediately after snuffing- the handle the dog trotted away to the place where the crowd was collected, made its way through

them, and filially seized Wallnicka, bringing his cap back to the policeman in charge. Upon this evidence W-a!lni-oka was arrested, and it was subsequently discovered that he had in point of fact been discharged from the railway service seme time before, owing to unsatisfactory conduct. Tic had since revera! times threatened to “give the railway director a taste of something he’d remember all his life.” POLICE DOC TRIALS. Some highly successful trials of police dog's were made recently at Novaya Dare vnyn. (New Village), a suburb of St. Petersburg. A training establishment for such dogs was started there a few months a,go, and the training of the animals has made wonderful progress in the short in- . terval. i The trials were in the nature of a com- , petition open to St. Petersburg, Moscow, ! and other towns. They were carried out in -an extensive park placed j,t the disposal of the organising committee by an enthusiastic amateur. The tests Included wall-climbing, the fetching of heavy and clumsy objects, the tracking of persons, and tbs finding of articles dropped- by them in the depths of a weed, and the attacking of a thickly-padded supposititious criminal, who hit at the dogs with a stick, fired revolvers, and did everything possible, but in vain, to drive them off. The first pr,ze was won by Trcf, a deg belonging to the Moscow Prefect of Police. | An amusing incident occurred when M. 1 Lebecleff, a high official present, asked one of the spectators to stand for a moment in the centre of the exhibition ground, so that Trcf might get the scent left by his footsteps. The man was then requested to leave the park ancll conceal himself anywhere he liked with a start of ten. minutes. Tref was put on his track, and, notwithstanding innumerable cross-scents, had no difficulty in running the man down in a “tra'ktir,” or small inn. Considerable alarm was caused among the other customers of the inn by Tr-ef’s desperate efforts to elude his keeper and get at the quarry., Tbo St. Petersburg police dogs have al- | ready demonstrated their value. During the last few weeks several robbers have ■been tracked through their instrumentality, j