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. The minute, however, the latter has reached
the flock, he turns round and begins to bark, and then all
the house-dogs take very quickly to their heels. In a similar
manner a whole pack of the hungry wild dogs will scarcely
ever (and I was told by some never) venture to attack a
flock guarded by even one of these faithful shepherds. The
whole account appears to me a curious instance of the pliability
of the affections in the dog; and yet, whether wild or
however educated, he has a feeling of respect or fear for
those that are fulfilling their instinct of association. For
we can understand on no principle the wild dogs being
driven away by the single one with its flock, except that they
consider, from some confused notion, that the one thus
associated gains power, as if in company with its own kind.
F. Cuvier has observed that all animals that readily enter
into domestication, consider man as a member of their own
society, and thus fulfil their instinct of association. In
the above case the shepherd-dog ranks the sheep as its fellow-
brethren, and thus gains confidence; and the wild dogs,
though knowing that the individual sheep are not dogs, but
are good to eat, yet partly consent to this view when seeing
them in a flock with a shepherd-dog at their head.
One evening a "domidor" (a subduer of horses) came
for the purpose of breaking-in some colts. I will describe
the preparatory steps, for I believe they have not been
mentioned by other travellers. A troop of wild young horses
is driven into the corral, or large enclosure of stakes, and
the door is shut. We will suppose that one man alone has
to catch and mount a horse, which as yet had never felt
bridle or saddle. I conceive, except by a Gaucho, such a feat
would be utterly impracticable. The Gaucho picks out a
full-grown colt; and as the beast rushes round the circus
he throws his lazo so as to catch both the front legs. Instantly
the horse rolls over with a heavy shock, and whilst
struggling on the ground, the Gaucho, holding the lazo
tight, makes a circle, so as to catch one of the hind legs
just beneath the fetlock, and draws it close to the two front
legs: he then hitches the lazo, so that the three are bound
together.
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