Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson LXIII · Topic 8: Domestic animals
63. Dogs
Goal: Your child can compare a dog's feet, ears, nose and teeth with a cat's, and explain how a dog's body suits a hunter that runs its prey down.
You'll need
- A calm, friendly dog (your own or a neighbor's, with the owner there)
- A sheet of paper to roll into a tube
- A patch of damp sand, mud or snow for paw prints (optional)
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
Comstock's story of the dog: its long friendship with people, its wolf-like ancestors, how it hunts by scent and runs its prey down, and the many breeds. Then Lesson LXIII's leading thought, method and thirteen questions on legs, feet, eyes, ears, nose, teeth, moods and breeds.
The lesson, step by step
When, where and safety
Any season, with a dog your child knows. Comstock asks for "a well-disposed dog which would not object to being handled."
Ask the owner before touching any dog. Let the dog sniff the back of your hand first, stroke its back or side, and never bother a dog that is eating, sleeping or chewing a toy. Keep faces away from the dog's face. Let the owner lift the lips or paws if you look at teeth or claws.
Keep the big idea in mind
Comstock's "leading thought" is the one idea the lesson is meant to lead to. Read it to yourself now, and save it to share at the end, after your child has looked and answered:
The dog is a domesticated descendant of wolf-like animals and has retained certain of the habits and characteristics of his ancestors.
Feet and claws
Compare the feet of the cat with those of the dog and note which has the heavier pads.
Can the dog retract his claws so that they are not visible, as does the cat? Of what use is this arrangement to the dog? Are the front feet just like the hind feet? How many toe impressions show in the track of the dog?
If you can, let the dog walk across damp sand or snow and look at the prints: you will see the claw marks.
Ears and a paper tube
Watch the dog's ears when it hears a sound.
How is this flap used when the dog is listening?
Now try Comstock's experiment:
Roll a sheet of paper into a flaring tube and place the small end upon your own ear, and note if it helps you to hear better the sounds in the direction toward which the tube opens?
Hold the tube gently against the outside of the ear; never push anything into an ear.
The nose knows
Does the dog recognize his friends or become acquainted with strangers by means of his sight or of his powers of smelling?
Hide a treat (with the owner's OK) under one of three cups and watch how the dog finds it: eyes or nose?
How a dog talks
How by action, voice, and especially by the movement of the tail does the dog express the following emotions: Delight, friendliness, affection, attention, anger, fear, shame, excitement?
Ask your child to act out two or three of these with their own "tail" and let you guess.
Put it into words
Ask: What does a dog still do that its wild ancestors did? Then read the leading thought aloud.
What we know now: scientists today agree that dogs come from wolves tamed long ago.
Nature notebook
Draw a dog's paw print and a cat's paw print side by side (from the book or real prints) and show which has claw marks. Comstock's question 11 makes a good writing task too:
Tell or write a story of some dog which you know by experience or hearsay.
Afterwards
List all the dog breeds your child can name this week, and for one of them find out what job it was first bred to do (Comstock's question 13).