Bing/Introduction

In these two quaint lines, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, has expressed the sentiments of most Englishmen, as well as those of nearly all truly great souls. To hate dogs is a sign of narrow-mindedness; and his fellow men may well watch a man who habitually, and without any special reason, cannot endure the finest member of the animal creation.

Maeterlinck says that the dog has more nearly broken down the barrier between man and the animal kingdom than has any other animal. Not only is this true, but the dog has also aroused in man some of ​his loftiest sentiments and most unselfish love. Man has doubtless had a great influence on the dog's character and disposition, but it is equally true that the dog has both elevated and ennobled man.

If dogs and men have influenced each other greatly in a spiritual way, they have materially influenced each other even more. Who could have dreamed that out of his common ancestor, the grey wolf, could have sprung so many and varied breeds of dogs; yet each branch of this great family of two hundred breeds is a true son of a wolf. Breeding, selection, training, and environment have made all the difference between the great Dane, or the powerful wolfhound, and the Pekinese, or toy poodle. Climate has doubtless done much to mould the different strains, just as it has created different races of men; but climate is not all. The ​dog has been as clay in the potter's hand, and man has moulded him almost at will. Not only has he moulded his size, shape, and color, but also his disposition and habits of mind, for the dog in good hands is as plastic as wax. Man has taught dogs to be as savage as wolves, or as gentle and loving as any person; he has taught the dog to range the forests and the plains in pursuit of wild game, and has also taught him to act as a faithful watchman—a policeman neither to be bribed nor browbeaten.

Brave dogs have never hesitated in serving their masters, even when their own lives were in danger, else how could Barry, the faithful St. Bernard, have scaled the crags and mountain-high snowdrifts for so many years in search of lost travellers and saved so many lives? Few human lifesavers in any service have a better record ​than has this noble dog. Yet, to him, it was not heroism, but just a part of the day's work, when men lashed his life-saving outfit upon this massive dog and sent him forth into the howling, swirling storm where no man dared to venture.

The men, women, and children that dogs have saved from drowning are legion; while faithful fire dogs, and police dogs do valiant service for mankind.

Not only is the dog a good policeman, but he is often a fine detective with a superhuman sense of evil thoughts in the minds and hearts of bad men. There is one great business house which has a large dog stationed in the outer office. Each visitor to the building is scrutinized critically and, when the stranger who wishes to see the general manager finally reaches the inner office, a little slip of paper has preceded him, telling the manager how ​the caller has been sized up by the four-footed detective in the outer office. If he goes up to the stranger and sniffs him in a friendly way, the caller always does business with the firm, if it is possible, for the dog has given him all the recommendation the company requires.

No family circle is ever quite complete, especially if the family contains children, without a dog. Merwin writes, in "Dogs and Men": "Blessed are they whose furniture is so inexpensive and so shabby that children and dogs are not excluded from its sacred precincts."

It means so much to the different members of the family to hear that joyous bark when they open the front door, or to feel an inquisitive muzzle thrust into the hand. To Father and the boys, it is comradeship; and to Mother and the girls, it is protection and endearment. How joyously ​the happy canine bounds to bring Father's slippers, now that Master is at home! How the inquisitive nose goes sniffing at the different bundles just arrived from the grocery or market, to see if there is any possibility of a bone for a poor hungry dog's supper!

If there are children in the family, the need of a good dog is great. It is the part of wisdom, when the baby comes, to get a puppy and let the two grow up together. The dog will learn to look after the baby even more faithfully than any nurse-girl, while from the dog the growing child can learn patience, gentleness, and how to love, for only a dog really knows how to love. It does not matter to him whether his master be rich or poor, black or white, virtuous or vicious; he loves him just the same. He is the only friend who sticks by when the family fortunes sink to the ​zero point, and there is little left in the house but love. The faithful dog shares the poor man's poverty just as joyously as he does the rich man's generosity, and he is faithful to the last breath in either event.

A good and loving dog is a sure barometer of the family fortune, for his tail droops with his master's sorrow and waves high and joyously when the family fortunes soar. A man can fool his wife when he is worried, but he cannot deceive his dog. Somehow that faithful old companion will smell out the trouble and come around and climb up into his master's lap to see if he can heal the wound. He responds instantly to a better mood.

The disposition of a dog is often an index of the disposition of his master, or his family; so we should strive to be at our very best in order that the family canine ​may reflect our own benevolence and goodness.

Nor has the dog always been without honor. Dog-lovers will recall the little black-and-tan terrier, Cæsar, owned by the late King Edward of England, that, in the great funeral procession of the dead monarch, marched immediately after the bier, while thirty thousand British soldiers, with arms at rest, followed behind him. It was a fine tribute of the British royal family to the nobility of the dead monarch's little canine friend, that had been his constant companion in his last hours.

Nor has the dog been backward in the strenuous adventurous life of his god, the man creature. The Alaskan dog has drawn him along the snowbound trails of that bleak land when the thermometer was fifty below zero. In the great Alaskan sweepstake race which was given up ​in 1917, because it took so much out of both dogs and men, the dog was the chief actor. On bloody battle-fields, dogs have drawn powder-wagons where it was so rough that horses or motor vehicles could not travel. When the smoke of battle had died away, other brave dogs went over the battle-field carrying first aid to the wounded, and saving many gallant lives for patriotic service.

On the lonely moors of Scotland and England, the shepherd is never alone so long as he has his faithful dog with him, but he is hopelessly lost without his four-footed friend.

Thus it will be seen in many of the most stirring adventures of his life that the faithful dog has been by man's side, sharing his hardships and keeping him company.

Since the dog is such a true and worthy ​friend to man, I bespeak from all my readers such treatment of him as his nobility deserves. I beseech the vivisectionist to stay the knife that he holds above his helpless friend, for the dog, alive, can do much more for humanity than he can dead. Vivisection is a relic of barbarism and no part of true science. It is destined to disappear as a hideous nightmare, something that is best forgotten.

Officers who restrain dogs and enforce laws concerning them should temper justice with mercy, for they little dream what good friends to man they lose when they ruthlessly slaughter dogs.

Boys who stone dogs should stop and think before they throw the missile, for some day this very dog may pull them from the water and save their lives.

Automobilists who mercilessly run dogs down on the public highways should re​member that, although they can take life, they cannot give it. They have no right to blot carelessly out a life which may be very dear to some child, or to some older dog-lover.

Owners of dogs,—yours is a great responsibility! Always see that your dog's collar is sufficiently loose, and if he is chained, be sure that he has a generous leash. Look to his food and his water as you would wish to be treated yourself. He will pay you back for all your care in the golden coin of love; such love as money cannot buy; a love which is always faithful and which never wavers.

If fortune flouts you, other friends may slight you, but never your dog. You may fall in grace in the eyes of the world, but you can never fall in his esteem. To him you will always be master, his first and last love, and his god, often a very sorry god, ​disgracing the love and trust that he gives you, yet still his god.

He will lick the empty hand with just as much affection as he does the hand of opulence, and all he asks in return is to be near you, to share your joys and your sorrows, to comfort your lonely moments with his silent adoration, and to kiss away your tears with his soft tongue, if you are overwhelmed with grief. If you speak to him kindly now and then; if you give back just a fraction of the lavish love he is always outpouring; if you call him chum or pal occasionally and tell him confidentially all those things that perplex you; he will understand much better than you imagine, and his dumb affection will do much to assuage the sharpest grief. If you treat him as such a friend deserves to be treated, it is all he asks.

He will lie for hours looking up at you ​with those adoring eyes, perfectly happy. If you treat him right, you will find his love as constant as the magnetic needle is to the pole. Others may fluctuate, but never he. In riches and poverty, joy and sorrow, honor and disgrace, heat and cold, he is always the same adoring, worshipful friend, faithful unto death, giving his all, and giving it gladly.

Fidelity, loyalty, valor, trustfulness, honesty, devotion, selflessness, thy name is Dog, the best friend that God ever vouchsafed to man.