- A MONEY-MAKING DOG.
On a charming Hertfordshire common, devoted principally to geese and a. golf links, a cross-bred spaniel has recently -discovered a peculiar gift, and his intelligence is as economically valuable as it is scientifically interesting. Between the to and the green of the most characteristic short hole lies a pond, sufficiently comprehensive but generally shallow. A local spaniel spends is goOd part of his time in wading very slowly and methodically through and across the pond. n( feels methodically with his front paws, moving them ur and down as if he were marking time. Directly they touch a ball down goes his head and the ball_is retrieved. At first he would occasionally pull out a stone, but he has now quite rid himself of that weakness. How valuable the dog's gift is may be understood from the following incident. A lad) was found on the edge lamenting the loss of a brand-nes Dunlop ; and to solace her the deg was fetched. He went to work with his usual zest and thoroughness, and before he gave up the search he had recovered from the pond no feint than seventeen balls. It is a pity that one has to contest that the lady's particular ball was not one of them.
A team of spaniels used to make regular rounds of the Crowboro' and Forest Row Links ; and the owner once told me that they had found as many as sixty balls in the day. The method of working was to throw big pebbles into likely patches of gorse and heather, and they worked—a very unusual thing in a dog—by sight at least as 'much as by scent. But their performance doesn't compare with that of the pond. wading Springer, who will go steadily on with the search though the water reaches the top of his back. We generally consider scent the master attribute of the dog, especially of the spaniel ; but here we have two sets of spaniels exercising their skill, one through sight and the other through touch. Perhaps dog lovers can record as notable instances of their sense of hearing, or perhaps of their so-called sixth sense ?
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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