I Often Wondered How So Firm A
Friendship Had Been Established.
The method of education
consists in separating the puppy, while very young, from
the bitch, and in accustoming it
To its future companions.
An ewe is held three or four times a day for the little thing
to suck, and a nest of wool is made for it in the sheep-pen;
at no time is it allowed to associate with other dogs, or with
the children of the family. The puppy is, moreover, generally
castrated; so that, when grown up, it can scarcely
have any feelings in common with the rest of its kind. From
this education it has no wish to leave the flock, and just
as another dog will defend its master, man, so will these
the sheep. It is amusing to observe, when approaching a
flock, how the dog immediately advances barking, and the
sheep all close in his rear, as if round the oldest ram. These
dogs are also easily taught to bring home the flock, at a
certain hour in the evening. Their most troublesome fault,
when young, is their desire of playing with the sheep; for
in their sport they sometimes gallop their poor subjects most
unmercifully.
The shepherd-dog comes to the house every day for some
meat, and as soon as it is given him, he skulks away as if
ashamed of himself. On these occasions the house-dogs are
very tyrannical, and the least of them will attack and pursue
the stranger.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 230 of 776
Words from 61477 to 61729
of 208183
