CHAPTER III 



THE MESSENGER DOG : TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT. 



'* The tither was a plowman's collie, 

 A rhyming, ranting, roving billie, 

 He was a gash and faithfu' tyke. 

 As ever lap a sheugh or dike. 

 His honest sonsie, bawsie face, 

 Aye gat him friends in ilka place. 

 .... When up they gat and shook their lugs, 

 Rejoiced they were na men but dogs." 



Burns. 



THE training of the messenger dog requires a decidedly 

 special gift in the instructor. Without a long, intimate, 

 and practical working experience among dogs on a large 

 scale, no one need attempt to train messenger dogs in war- 

 time. It must be understood that training includes the 

 instruction of the men who are to act as keepers to the dogs, 

 as well as of the dogs themselves. 



In organizing the school in the first place, I recommended 

 that gamekeepers, shepherds, and hunt servants should 

 be especially asked for, and this may be said to be a fair 

 working basis on which to start, but my experience goes 

 to show that many of the men who had actually worked 

 among dogs all their lives were not necessarily the best for 

 this particular branch. In order to be a good keeper for 

 a messenger dog in the field, a man must in the first place 



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