Training and Management 65 



be brave, and he must be fit. He is no use if he is afraid 

 of the front line, or if he is incapacitated. In fact, he 

 should be an Ai man. The men comprising the personnel 

 require to be of an honest, conscientious character, with 

 sympathetic understanding for animals. A keeper, when 

 in the front line, though governed by definite regulations, 

 requires to use his own initiative to a great extent in handling 

 his dogs, and men of intelligence and faithfulness to duty 

 are absolutely essential. It will thus be seen that a really 

 high standard of character is of first importance. This 

 must be accompanied by a fondness for, and a gentleness 

 with, dogs. Complete confidence and affection must 

 exist between dogs and keeper, and the man whose only 

 idea of control is by coercion and fear is quite useless. I 

 have found that many men, who are supposedly dog experts, 

 are not sufficiently sympathetic, and are apt to regard the 

 dog too much as a machine. They do not study the 

 psychology of their charges sufficiently. Another type of 

 man to avoid is one who has trained or bred a few dogs, 

 and thinks in consequence that he knows all there is to 

 know. This unteachable attitude disqualifies a man at 

 the outset. Some of the most successful keepers, that is 

 to say, those who obtained the best results from the dogs 

 in the field, and were also the most helpful when under 

 instruction at the school, were those who, having a 

 natural love of animals, had had no previous experience 

 of a particular nature with dogs. 



Now the most important point in the whole messenger 

 service is this question of the keepers. It is more im- 

 portant than that of the dog. The cleverest dog is non- 

 plussed in charge of a stupid or unconscientious keeper. 

 Therefore, in order to obtain the highest efficiency, it is 

 most essential that the personnel at the school should be 



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