Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-12-15
DOG DETECTIVES IN GERMANY.

system EMPLOYED There with Sue
cess in Tracking EviIdcsrs.
Year by year L attend trials of 'po-
lice dogs" in Germany and Austria,
where man-hunting dogs are trained
and bred for police purposes and where
dogs have become a branch of the police
organization says a writer in the Lon
don Telegraph. In Germany there is
a society called the Association for Fur
thering the Breeding and Employment
of Police Dogs. and ideas on the sub
ject are exchanged, all experiments
with dogs being carefully reported.
Years of thorough and painstaking
study were devoted to this subject be-
fore suitable breeds of dogs were OBJ
tanned and proper methods of working
the dogs were discovered. Originally
Brunswick was the headquarters of the
German police doggy men and when
canine assistance was required one OF
the officers at once set out with dog.
These officers and dogs often Travelled
long journeys, going as far as Paris
and Constantinople on two occasions.
The German trainers soon came to
the conclusion that not even the most
perfect dog would carry a line three
or four days old when he was not in
perfect working condition, as he would
not be after long train journey. Be
fore anything else the MIND Of dog
must be quite fresh because he has to
do far more mental than physical work.
Further, a dog brought to country in
which the conditions are different fro-a
those of his home cannot settle down
to the work at once with his mind quite
fresh for the task. Artificial means to
revive the scent" are not always
handy, and even then will fail IL the
dog is not in perfect working condition.
Quite a revolution, however, set in
when the association referred to above
began to distribute dogs among police
men and watchmen. These animals got
so accustomed to their masters and the
rural conditions of their districts that
the slightest change from the normal
state provoked their suspicion while on
their daily patrol, and any amount OF
cases are published every week where
such well trained dogs led their mas
tiers to places of outrages which up to
that moment were still unknown. Sui
cides were found in time to bring such
poor creatures back to life, murderers
were discovered while the corpses were
still warm, and so of course vas the
-.
hunted and stopped not many miles off,
waiting for chance to escape. Tramps
hiding themselves in thickets could not
enjoy a quiet hour, and many want
ed was discovered by the help of these
dogs.
1t is an infrequent occurrence that
an outrage is not discovered within
twenty-four hours after the commits
sion of the crime. The next station
dog is at once called and unless he
has, not already stopped suspicious in
dividual during one of his patrols he
will pick up at once the line of the
criminal after having-in case of fatal
outrage-been brought to the corpse.
Since police dogs were introduced in
Brunswick there have been compare
lively few evasiOps of justice in cases
of violence The certainty of detec-
ton has had good result and the
criminal statistics of that town show
that during the last two years not a
single murder was committed there or
within twenty miles around this nlu-
nicipality.