50 British War Dogs 



various dog clubs, which made trained dogs a speciality ; 

 but there was no properly organized training school in 

 connection with the army until the official establishment 

 was started by the War Office during the war about the 

 same time as the English one. 



The Italians had had previous experience with sentry 

 dogs in the Tripoli campaign, and in the Great War used the 

 mountain sheep dogs a good deal with their sentries on the 

 frontier. 



In England, before the war, I was the sole person who 

 took any interest in trained dogs for the army and police, 

 and the outflow from my kennels constituted the only 

 source of supply. 



Most of the countries I have mentioned had been ex- 

 perimenting with ambulance dogs for searching for the 

 wounded, and I also had given a good deal of attention to 

 this service, but it was found unworkable under modern 

 conditions of trench warfare. 



The messenger dog came very much to the front, and has 

 - come to stay in modern warfare. Like the Tank, it may 

 be said to be particularly a product of this war. At first 

 there were many sceptics, but as the barrage form of attack 

 became part of the army system, the casualties among 

 runners increased at a terrible rate. Could the dogs take 

 their place ? Would they face the shell-fire ? Could they 

 be depended on ? These questions came to be answered 

 in the affirmative. Yes ! They did their duty nobly, 

 passing rapidly through the danger areas, and often over 

 land surface impossible of traverse by man, and thus saved 

 countless lives — not only the lives of runners, but also 

 those of the individual units whose urgent messages they 

 carried. 



