A bull-terrier called Jasper, studied by Prof. J. B. Watson, showed
great power of associating certain words with certain actions. From a
position invisible to the dog the owner would give certain commands,
such as "Go into the next room and bring me a paper lying on the floor."
Jasper did this at once, and a score of similar things.
Lord Avebury's dog Van was accustomed to go to a box containing a small
number of printed cards and select the card TEA or OUT, as the occasion
suggested. It had established an association between certain black marks
on a white background and the gratification of certain desires. It is
probable that some of the extraordinary things horses and dogs have been
known to do in the way of stamping a certain number of times in supposed
indication of an answer to an arithmetical question (in the case of
horses), or of the name of an object drawn (in the case of dogs), are
dependent on clever associations established by the teacher between
minute signs and a number of stampings. What is certain is that mammals
have in varying degrees a strong power of establishing associations.
There is often some delicacy in the association established. Everyone
knows of cases where a dog, a cat, or a horse will remain quite
uninterested, to all appearance, in its owner's movements until some
little detail, such as taking a key from its peg, pulls the trigger. Now
the importance of this in the wild life of the fox or the hare, the
otter or the squirrel, is obviously that the young animals learn to
associate certain sounds in their environment with definite
possibilities. They have to learn an alphabet of woodcraft, the letters
of which are chiefly sounds and scents.