My friend, who had just come home on leave from the trenches, placed
on the table in front of me a suspicious-looking parcel which left no
manner of doubt that, for its size, it was extremely heavy.
"I'm going to leave this with you for a day or two, if you don't mind,"
he said. "I can't carry it about with me."
"What is it--bombs?" I asked, laughing, and my friend, without a smile,
answered:--
"Yes, two bombs--for my dog."
Wondering what murderous intention had suddenly taken possession of
the man, I looked my surprise, and then he explained. He was about to
buy a dog to take back with him to the trenches, he told me, and to
make sure that the animal was absolutely and thoroughly trained he had
brought the bombs in order to test him. If, when the bombs exploded in
the dog's presence, the latter stood the shock without fear or panic,
he would know the animal was trained and would be useful to him. If,
on the other hand, he manifested the symptoms of unrest which I, for
instance, would show if a bomb exploded just behind my coat-tails, then
the animal was not properly trained and would be of no use to a soldier
in the trenches.
The use of dogs in warfare is to-day a common matter. The number of
dogs with the French army alone can be guessed when it is stated that
one society, the Société Nationale du Chien Sanitaire, of 21, Rue de
Choiseul, Paris, has trained over fifteen hundred war-dogs.
The training of dogs for warfare showed from the first of the most
satisfactory results, and numbers of regiments would now find their
operations very difficult indeed if they were suddenly deprived of
their sagacious four-footed companions.
The Société du Chien Sanitaire, like most new movements, did not
receive much official encouragement at the beginning of the campaign,
but nevertheless, thanks to its efforts, under its energetic president,
M. A. Lepel-Cointet, aided by private enterprise, suitable animals were
soon forthcoming, at any rate for ambulance purposes, and many officers
took "mobilized" dogs with them to act as scouts and watchers at night.
Dogs particularly suitable to warlike purposes are to be found in great
numbers in the Lower Pyrenees and other mountainous regions of France,
and to-day there are societies in different parts of the country--not
enough, it is true, but still they have made a good beginning--who are
collecting and training the animals and sending them to the Front.
Recently a contingent of one hundred dogs was sent to the army by the
Department of the Indre, which is a hunting country where dogs are
particularly well trained to explore and to act as guardians. People
who have given or lent dogs to the army can, by keeping the number
given to them on receipt of the animal, have news of their pets and
their exploits, and some continue to keep in touch with their humble
friends by sending them dainties from time to time.