There are several societies in Paris which choose suitable dogs
in order to make soldiers of them. The "Central Society for the
Development of the Breeds of Dogs" gave three thousand dogs to the
French army last August. After they have been tested, an operation
which takes about three weeks, they are sent to special stations in
the rear of the armies to be trained, and five or six days are all
that are necessary for the training of animals for the simpler kinds
of work. For more difficult tasks the training is naturally a longer
business. When dogs are to be trained as communication agents the
instruction may take several weeks. They are taught to go from one
master to another, first by a call, then by a whistle, then simply
at a mere gesture. Distances are gradually increased, obstacles are
placed in the way, the animal's goal becomes invisible, and so on. Much
patience is required in this kind of work; and it is found that the
best results are obtained by kindness and giving rewards for good work
accomplished. The animals are taught to recognize only two masters, and
to obey them alone. Outsiders are not allowed to pet or feed them. When
they understand that they have to obey only one or two men, they have
to learn to follow one or both of them when marching in a column of
infantry, to recognize them when in a group, and so on. They are taught
to endure the sound of gun-firing or explosions quite close to them.
Above all, they are strictly trained never to pick up articles on their
journey and to refuse delicacies offered them by strangers.
Specially-trained dogs only are chosen for this work, and they are
mostly sheep-dogs or collies or animals whose business it was in civil
life to be guardians or watchers, and always on the alert. These are
all the easier to train for the special work--somewhat of the same
order--which they are set to do in war.
... When the question of transport through the mountain snow had
become a matter of urgent importance, the French authorities conceived
the idea of using dog-drawn sleighs for carrying supplies. Some
hundred "huskies"--a cross between the Eskimo dog and the wolf--and
other trained dogs from Alaska, North-Western Canada, and Labrador
were brought over by Lieutenant René Haas, a Frenchman who had spent
fourteen years in Alaska. Mr. Warner Allen, the representative of
the British Press with the French armies, describing the work of
these dogs, says the snow in the neighbourhood of the Schlucht Pass
was deep enough until almost the end of April for the dogs to render
yeoman service. "They were able," he says, "to draw heavy loads over
almost inaccessible country, and to supplement to a valuable extent
the wheeled transport. But their utility has not ceased with the
disappearance of the snow. They are now being harnessed to trucks
on small two-foot-gauge light railways, which run everywhere behind
the Front, and they are capable of drawing the heaviest load up the
steepest gradient. Eleven dogs, with a couple of men, can haul a ton
up some of the most precipitous slopes in the mountains, and I was
assured that two teams of seven dogs each could do the work of five
horses in this difficult country, with a very great economy of men."
This correspondent adds that the best of these imported breeds of dogs
is the Alaskan, as "his courage never fails, and he will work until he
drops, though he is perhaps the weakest of them. They are all shaggy
dogs, with prick ears and bushy tails, their colour ranging from
black to white, between greys and browns. Their chest development, so
necessary for hauling, is remarkable. They are mainly fed on rice,
horse-flesh, and waste military biscuits, and this fare appears to suit
them admirably, as they are always in splendid condition, and disease
is practically unknown. The experiment of transporting these dogs
to France has shown that they can be of real service in mountainous
country, and represent a real economy."
Dogs that are specially adapted or have been trained for hunting or
sporting purposes are of little use in war, as they have acquired
habits incompatible with the work now demanded of them. Certain breeds,
such as the Great Dane, and others of limited intelligence, are of no
value at all. Some of these have the habit of rushing forward at the
slightest alarm, which is of more danger than advantage to the soldiers
to whom they might belong.