Norwich bulletin., 1916-05-10
Stories of the War
French War Doss.

Hunting dogs make poor war dogs, according to one of the specialists who have been training these animals at the front. Another development of the experience of a year and a half is that the female is superior to the male.
 The French war dogs are now di- vided into five classes: l, dog senti- nels; ?, patrol dogs; B. despatch bear CTS; 4, ambulance dogs; 5, draught dogs
 For all but the draught dogs French breeds are now preferred. They are mostly recruited from the region of the Beauce, good rustic shepherds that know all the secrets of the ground, and mountain dogs from the Pyrenees, used to roughing it over difficult coun- try. These breeds are about the only ones that continue effective through all the transformations that the first line of defense undergoes. To get the most out of them it is necessary to specialize them, the all round war dog existing only iii the imagination. Stories have been told of dogs that have been taught to growI signals into a telephone and to ring bells on the approach of a cloud of suffocating gas. What the dog has really learned to do is sufficient without attributing to him fantastic attainments. Dogs have carried messages between posts three miles apart, arriving in- fallfbly at their destinations and re- rurning to the point of departure, fear less of shells and deaf to any appeals made to them en route. Not even the frequent upheava1 of the ground over which they have once passed and the confusions of trails can put them off their course.
 ITO reach this degree of perfection" 9ys the trainer, "one must take the greatest care to avoid even the ap- l pearance of brutality toward the pu- pill; the dog must never be fright ened while he is learning his duties l The ambulance dog must seek, rather 1 than trail, the wounded man and the | regulations governing their use have 1 been found to be deficient as their de- | velopment has proceeded. The rules prescribe, for instance, that the dog must be taught to bring back the cap l of the wounded man he has found. l Wounded men, however, in a great many instances no longer have a cap l have a helmet with the juguIar under the chin so that the dog cannot get it off. The intelligent dog, fortunately when he has finished the training per iod understands what is wanted of him and that the bringing in of a cap is only detail; in the absence of the regulation cap he seeks anything else belonging to the man he has found
 ''The most approved method o1 training now is summed up in the II WOIuS SICH 6LCn S66h WOun0- ed! Seek wounded and fetch!' At the end of three months of training in this order the dog understands what he is to look for and that he is to make his master understand that he has found someone, whether it be by an object brought back in his mouth or by any other manifestation that his intelligence suggests. Sometimes they bring in a tobacco pouch, a cigar light CT, anything they find in a mans pocket in default of a cap or handker- chief.
 Another mistake in the regulations was the requirement. that the dog be trained to return to his master in a straight line. The good searcher oper- ates in zig gag course and 1t is nat ural for him to get back by the same route."
 The efficiency of the dog sentinel was illustrated by an incident at an important point on the front where one of these animals suddenly began trotting obiquely toward the right and making signs that there was pres ent in that direction something that was foreign to the trench.
 There is something going or yon- der" said his conductor
 Your mongrel is dreaming" replied T soldier. 'SWe have a sharp lookout there; there's nothing"
 There must be a patrol leaving the i trenches over there, or going back
 Nothing at all,'' insisted the look out.
 There's something over there, just the same; perhaps it's listening post dug in toward our lines''
 The officer commanding the section being notified, ordered the firing o1 three illuminating fuses and in the glare three blond German heads were seen over the parapet of an advanced trench
 That's capital" exclaimed the ofd- cer. That dog has discovered in ar instant a listening post that we have been looking for these two months.'