The Sentinel=record. (Hot Springs, Ark.) 1900-current, 1914-08-09
BY EVERY INSTINCT
DOGS ARE Thieves
POLICE DOGS AS THIEF CATCHER
OVERCOME BY DOG THIEVES
USED FOR OTHER SIDE,
Instead of the "Dogs of War; We
Now Have the "War of Doas" as
Shown in the Movie Pictures by
Irwin S. Cobb. .Is1.

ture of criminals is in danger of be-
ing hoist by his own petard. The
fact that dog is intelligent enough
to catch thief proved to an expert in
criminology that a dog would be sue
cessful also as thief.
A veritable Pandora's box of trou-
bes seems to have been opened by
this discovery, now employed for the
first time in motion pictures. We
have seen the evolution of the police
dog, trained to the skillful detection
of a criminal. Now we are to have
the opposite of that proposition, the
skilled police dog retrained by thief
to his own ends.
All dogs are by instinct thieves. 1t
is their inheritance from their wolf
ancestors. Through years of arduous
training we have taught dogs that
they must not steal. But latent, al
ways, is that heritage from their wild
dorefathers. The corruption of
thief catching dog so that he becomes
thief himself is, after all, simple
case of reyersion to type.
But conceive the consequences As
soon as we have a number OF thieving
dogs operating at the direction of a
criminal intelligence we naturally
confront a situation wherein police
dogs, trained to stop thieying, will
combat eX-police dogs retrained in
their natural bent as thieves. Instead
Of the dogs of war; we seem to face
the war OF dogs" We shall have
Sehrlock Holmes turned Raffles.
This is not an academic discussion
of possibilities. but a cold statement
Of facts, for in chapter 80 of Our
Mutual Girl" written by Irwin S.
Cobb, a former German police dog is
employed to steal a valuable cameo
necklace. He does it with such skill
and SO deties detection after the act
that what started out merely as fic-
tion has turned into a very solemn
condition.
Let us tell first about the dog. BY
the irony OF things this first of highly
trained dog thieves is a female. Her
name is Ami Won der fredericksburg.
She is a German schaferhund (sheep
dog, born at Hellingen, Weimar, Ger
many, on Dec. 10, 1909 SO she is not
five years old.
Alni comes from splendid line of
German police dogs, and as the Ger
mans were first to utilize dogs for POI
lice. war and life saving purposes,
this lineage bespeaks years of ift-
herited training. Anni's mother is
Resell Won Jena Paradies, the cham
pion female dog of Germany. Her
father was Siegfried Won Jena Para
dies, another champion.
Ami was trained from birth until
she was fourteen months old by the
Berlin police authorities. Then they
had to- dispose of her because shs
could not get on with the other dogs.
Ami was cleyerest among them all,
but her quarrelsome tendencies made
il impossible for her to be retained in
the kennels. There wasn't dog in
the Berlin squad that she didn't fight
and defeat
And so her police career came to an
abrupt 6tlus Ou6 WGIlL UdGk u bnG
kennels of her first owner and spent
three years in idleness, so far as po-
lice activities were concerned. Then
she was brought to the United States
for exhibition purposes.
Irwin S. Cobb and Arthur James
heard of Ami, her altecedents and
her combative tendencies. When
they collaborated, the one as writer
and the other as editor, they decided
to work Ami into the film. Natural
ly, as the first of ex-police dogs to
turn thief, she Is an interesting per-
sonage; second, 1t would demonstrate
what grave danger to society lies in
one of these highly trained animals
going TO the bad" third, 1t would
prove that here was a field of animal
oliver Twists that would obey their
Fagins and ask only for more work.
For seven weeks Anni's sensitive.
highly trained police capabilities were
turned to another channel For fifty
consecutive days her regular physical
regimen was diet of thieving. She
was retaght all the habits her PRINT
tive ancestors inherently possessed.
And Ami took to the course with an
avidity little short of startling.
This is the way she first was en-
ployed in the film: Mrs. knicker-
booker, wealthy aunt, purchases
$4,000 necklace at Tiffanys as her
niece's birthday present. The aunt is
seen to buy the antique canoes by
the clever thief who owns Ami. He
follows Mrs. Klickerbocker to her
home marks the various ways of in
gress and egress and then gets his
dog.
In the meanwhile Mrs. Knicker-
booker has given Margaret, Our Mu-
tual Girl, her present. And Our Mu-
tual Girl, delighted with the splendid
gift, rapturously shows it to all her
friends. Then, girllike, she leaves 1t
in her dresser while she dimes.
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