The Elk Mountain pilot., 1916-11-02
DOGS DO GREAT
WORK IN WAR
Perform Great Variety f Tasks
With Sagacity and Intel
igence.
SAVE MANY WOUNDED men
Correspondents 7=ii Many Stories of
Remarkable Feats of Canines-
One on Outpost Duty Barks
Warning Into Telephone.

Paris.-No medals are pinned on the
breasts of the dogs of war, but they
have played wonderful part as as
sistants to the ambulance corps, on
patrol duty, carrying dispatches, and
dragging machine guns into action for
the Belgians and others.
In addition to their work on the bat
tlefield, dogs did much to aid refugees.
They took their masters and their
families out of the line of invasion.
War correspondents have told how
much sagacity and courage the Bel
gian draught dogs displayed upon the
battlefield at Haelen, where with the
aid OF the Lewis machine gun they
held back forSa time the German ad-
vance through Belgium.
Just how many wounded men on
both sides of the firing line have been
saved by sheep dogs and other breeds
probably never will be known. These
dogs have been trained to search for
wounded, and by taking n mans cap
to headquarters in the field trained
nurse or doctor follows the dog who
leads back to the place where the
man is lying. Frequently wounded
man with his last ounce of strength
will use it to drag himself out of the
line of fire. 1t is in the out-of-the-way
places that the dog has been particu-
uarly valuable.
Training War Does.s
Europe has been training dogs for
years to the work which they did upon
the battlefield.
Those trained dogs Immediately be-
came attached to the Red Cross work
and many of them gave up their lives
In aiding humans.
There is story told of Belgium
dogs which aided their masters. The
Belgans, surrounded so that 1t seemed
hopeless to break through. probably
would have been destroyed but for the
ldea of captain In charge of what
was left of the machine-gun section.
He gave orders to loose the dogs from
the guns, and to encourage the dogs to
fling themselves upon the enemy. The
dogs did 1t With such telling effect that
they made a lane through which some
of the Belgian gunners escaped.
Sergeant Major Pouissigue's dog
Artemis was wounded in the Argonne.
Lying beside his master in the trench
at listening post he smelled the Ger
man advance guards and indicated a
warning of the enemy's approach.
Sergeant Pouissigue ordered the dog
back to warn the regiment to be on
the alert. The dog. however, refused
to go. when suddenly there was a
slight noise behind the listening SOL
Il; A,.ta
pet and flung himself at the throat of
German soldier. In the fight between
man and beast bullet went through
his right front leg. Later the dog re-
covered.
On another occasion, when his mas
ter was attached to the Ninety-fourth
regiment of infantry in the Ypres Sec
tor, the soldier was having fierce
hand-to-hand fight with one German
while the other was slipping up to
bayonet him from behind. Artemis
leaped at the latter's throat and fin
ished him. The dogs master also got
the better of his adversary.
Some Hero Dogs.
Other dogs which deserve medals
for their work are Marquis, which
carried n message around his neck to
n far-off detachment, arriving breath
less and painting at his destination only
to die; Stop of the Fifteenth army
corps, which saved many lives by his
activities. and Flora of the Twelfth
Alpine chasseurs, which did linking
work for two days, running under a
rain of shellfire.
The French war department has on
family who wrote saying: 81 already
have three sons and son-in-law with
the colors; now l give my dog, and
vive la France!"
Dogs on both sides do sentry duty at
night carry messages back to line with
more security than men and give no.
tice of the advance of the enemy by
barking These dogs are trained to
bark whenever a stranger approaches
within 200 yards, and surprise attacks
have often been frustrated by this ad-
vance knowledge.
According to the Gazette de Franco
a certain French regiment possesses a
dog which Is sent out from advanced
sentry posts at night with telephone
strapped over his mouth and wire
connecting the instrument with the
post. If the dog hears the Germans
approaching he barks quietly into the
telephone.