_“Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war”_
However trite may be the saying that history repeats itself, it is
unquestionably apposite in regard to the employment of dogs in warfare.
Great hounds were used to guard the camps of Rome. In even more
primitive times they were formidable adversaries in hand-to-hand
conflicts, while to come to more modern days Frederick the Great and
Napoleon—two of the greatest soldiers the world has ever seen—held a
very high opinion of the value of canine sentries. Napoleon, in fact, is
said to have urged Marmont to fasten dogs to stakes around the circuit
of the walls of Alexandria to keep guard.
Recent wars have served to emphasize the advantages which may be gained
by the use of the peculiar qualities of scent and hearing which dogs
possess. Their sense of scent we human beings lack almost entirely,
while they not only hear audible things more quickly than we do, but
also hear things which are quite inaudible to us. Is it to be wondered
at, therefore, that military experts have not been slow to recognize
such potential properties?