When Sam VanArsdale of Marshall, Missouri, adopted Jim, a Llewellyn setter, at six weeks old, he thought the pup was “the dumbest dog I’d ever seen.” That impression didn’t last long. During a quail hunt, VanArsdale casually mentioned they should rest under a nearby Hickory tree. To his amazement, Jim headed straight to the Hickory. Intrigued, VanArsdale tested him by naming other trees—a Walnut, a Cedar, even a stump—and Jim found each one without hesitation.
“How do I account for it? I can’t. No one can,” VanArsdale told the press as Jim quickly became a national sensation. “Scientists, biologists and psychologists have come here and they might as well have known no more than some man down in the Ozarks who can neither read nor write as far as explaining Jim is concerned.”
As the above article’s headline proclaimed, this extraordinary dog could even understand Yiddish. During a study of Jim at the University of Missouri, two rabbis in attendance put his skills to the test. “That’s the most remarkable thing I’ve ever seen,” exclaimed Dr. Frederick Middlebush, president of the university. “It’s unexplainable.” VanArsdale boasted the dog could, in fact, understand any language.
Jim was even alleged to have psychic powers, evidenced by picking six straight winners in the Kentucky Derby. VanArsdale would simply place the name of each racehorse on a separate piece of paper and Jim would touch the winner with his paw.
Expecting parents from across the country wired in requests seeking the dog’s foresight for predicting the sex of their babies. “I’ve got affidavits from the parents sworn before notaries” about Jim’s accuracy, VanArsdale said. After too many requests, he stopped asking Jim to accommodate them.
The know-it-all pooch couldn’t be fooled, though some tried to stump him. Once a man tested the dog by asking him which of the three women accompanying him was his wife. Jim remained perfectly still, stretched out on the floor. The man then admitted he wasn’t married.
Naturally, a canine curiosity like Jim could have put on a remarkable stage show, but VanArsdale turned down numerous offers to commercialize him. Perhaps he made enough from horse-racing picks to keep him happy.
Jim the Wonder Dog died suddenly on March 18, 1937, at age 12, while on a fishing trip with VanArsdale. The veterinarian tending to him was unsure if the cause of death was a heart attack or a stroke, but he believed no suffering was involved.
VanArsdale always denied the use of signals and was never caught giving them. Scientists who studied him were left baffled. Today he’s memorialized at the Jim the Wonder Dog Museum & Garden in Marshall.
