Teaching Animals to Converse

Abstract

J. S. B. seems to have misunderstood Sir John Lubbock's idea. It would be no great test if drawings were made, as the dog would see so little difference. Thus a dog of mine knows instantly whether he may go out with my housekeeper or not according to whether she wears her hat or her bonnet. In the first instance he knows she is going where he may go, and he is on his feet barking with joy as soon as she appears. If she has the bonnet on, he knows it to be church, or a visit to friends in the country, where he cannot go, and, like the “eldest oyster” (I quote from memory), he “winks his eye, and shakes his hoary head.” If drawings of hat and bonnet were made, he would know them at once.