There is no known case of the development of a single
instinct in domestic animals in all the history of their
domestication. Whatever instincts they possess they brought with
them from the wild thousands of years ago. Therefore, all Rollo's
actions were ganglionic discharges mechanically determined by the
instincts that had been developed and fixed in the species thousands
of years ago. Very well. It is clear, therefore, that in all his
play with me he would act in old-fashioned ways, adjusting himself to
the physical and psychical factors in his environment according to
the rules of adjustment which had obtained in the wild and which had
become part of his heredity.
Rollo and I did a great deal of rough romping. He chased me and I
chased him. He nipped my legs, arms, and hands, often so hard that I
yelled, while I rolled him and tumbled him and dragged him about,
often so strenuously as to make him yelp. In the course of the play
many variations arose. I would make believe to sit down and cry.
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