The _saltimbanque_, who is not a creator of systems _à priori_, but whose philosophy is purely experimental, has, for a long time, observed the regularity with which animals follow the same habits. Upon this observation he has based his method of training them. [p109]
Whatever the animal may be which he wishes to train, he commences by watching it closely, endeavouring to discover not only the usual habits of the race, but the personal disposition of the individual in question. One specimen raises itself naturally upon its hind legs, another is born with a talent for jumping. . . . And this axiom prevails in every case under training: "Animals are never forced to execute, at the command and will of others, any movements which are not natural to them in a free state." Monkeys love to swing in the tropical creepers: they are placed on a _trapèze_; a goat seeks for pointed rocks--he is a natural equilibrist: so he is taught to balance himself on the neck of a bottle; a dog instinctively rises on his hind legs to seize a morsel of sugar held out to him. He must learn to maintain himself in the same position.
Guided by these remarks, a trainer enters upon his task. He will attain his end if he judiciously uses the triple forces of _fear_, _greediness_, and _habit_.
The first time that you make a dog stand on its hind legs you have to contend with the indolence which makes the animal wish to revert to its usual position. Practise the [p111] lesson every day, and each time reward the pupil with a lump of sugar. An association of ideas will be soon formed in the dog's mind: the disagreeable sensation of _walking on its hind legs_ will be inseparably linked in its memory with the pleasure of _crunching sugar_. And since the frequent repetition of the same movement lessens the fatigue of maintaining a vertical position, the dog will at last willingly perform the feat which it at first disliked. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the whip is always ready to punish any obstinacy or awkwardness, and you will readily understand that a poodle, finding itself in the dilemma of either walking upon its hind legs and receiving a dainty, or of not walking and receiving a blow, at once chooses the polka.