“Q. My husband, who is an amateur hypnotizer, keeps
trying to get our bloodhound under his control. I contend that this is not
doing the dog any good. So far he has not yielded to my husband's influence,
but I am afraid that if he once got under, we couldn't get him out of it--A. A. T.
A. Dogs are usually left cold by all phases of
psychology, mental telepathy, and the like. Attempts to hypnotize this
particular breed, however, are likely to be fraught with a definite menace. A
bloodhound, if stared at fixedly, is liable to gain the impression that it is
under suspicion, being followed, and so on. This upsets a bloodhound's life, by
completely reversing its whole scheme of behavior.”—James Thurber, “The Pet
Department,” in The Owl in the Attic and Other Perplexities (1931)
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