The "dog soldier," like his master on special missions, has to see
and hear without being seen or heard. It is amusing, but nevertheless
true, that the dogs of smugglers and poachers, as well as those of
coastguardsmen, have been found to be most useful animals in the army.
A well-trained dog, acting with a sentinel or scouting party may be the
means of preserving numbers of lives by saving them from unpleasant
surprises.
The use of dogs in warfare was, of course, not invented in the
present war, though their utility had been systematized and given
more scientific scope than was ever the case before. In no previous
campaign have men understood the full use that could be made of these
highly-intelligent creatures.
It was the Belgians who first turned their attention to the subject
of employing dogs more extensively. Everybody who has visited Belgium
knows the use that is made of dogs for traction purposes all over
the country. Nearly all the peasants who bring agricultural or dairy
produce to market employ dogs to draw their small carts, sometimes
harnessing whole teams to heavy loads. The dog is also greatly used
in Belgium for sport, and from the sporting dog to the police dog is
but a step. The dog in war--as sentinel, courier, scout, or ambulance
worker--followed, and was the idea of Professor Reul, of the Veterinary
School of Cureghem, and two journalists named Van der Snick and
Sodenkampf. In 1885-6 the first dogs trained to some of these purposes
were shown at a dog show at Ostend, and shortly afterwards societies
were started at Brussels, Liège, Lierre, Ghent and other places, not
merely for the training of dogs, but to improve the breeds. Lieutenant
van der Putte, of the Belgian army, started the Société du Chien
Sanitaire for the express purpose of training dogs for ambulance work
and soon afterwards similar societies were organized in Paris and
Berlin.
It was quite natural that the Belgians should also think of using these
draught-dogs for small machine-guns, thus providing an inexpensive but
efficient light artillery. The Germans wished to imitate them, but it
is related that when they tried to buy dogs from the Belgians, as they
had no indigenous animals suited to the purpose, the Belgians refused
to sell. In other ways, however, the Germans were at the beginning of
the war well provided with dogs for various purposes, including the
ambulance service.
Since then the use of dogs in the German army has assumed considerable
proportions. The animals used are mostly of the German sheep-dog
variety, and a register of these, numbering several thousands, is
kept for mobilization purposes by the German Sheep-Dog Club. Other
breeds used by the enemy are terriers, red-haired griffons, Doberman
_pinchers_, Airedale terries, and a sort of bull-terrier known as a
"Boxer." Dogs, it appears, have been used by the German army chiefly on
the Eastern Front, where the fighting was of a more open description
than on the Western Front.... The German papers published appeals from
the authorities asking dog owners to offer their pets for war purposes,
and many thousands were obtained as a result.