It is admitted on all hands that the dog is capable of training to do
his master’s bidding in a great many different ways.
Other chapters appear in this work detailing with what purpose he is
used as an aid to the hunter, sportsman, courser, for the drawing of
quick-firing guns into the firing line, for ambulance work, for sentry
duty, as an indispensable aid in all Arctic and Antarctic expeditions,
to say nothing of the sport certain breeds give us as racing and
performing dogs.
The purport of this chapter is to indicate with what success he is being
trained as a branch of the police force. Thousands of dogs, mostly of
the German and Belgian sheepdog variety, are at this present time
enrolled in the widely scattered police and other municipal forces of
America and other countries.
In the training of dogs for this work a special aptitude on the part of
the “handler” or “guide” is essential. Given a reasonable amount of
common sense, unlimited patience and an understanding of a dog’s nature,
success is assured in a large majority of cases.
The police dog trial is an old story so far as Germany, Belgium and
Holland are concerned. Americans are now taking this highly instructive
work in hand and the displays create a tremendous amount of enthusiastic
interest. The objects of such trials are: