66 British War Dogs 



always kept in a fluid condition. The men, when they 

 are recruited from the commands, should, in the first place, 

 have a distinct understanding that they are in every case 

 liable for the trenches. This precaution excludes the 

 shirker, who jumps at any job that he thinks will keep 

 him at home. Each man must come on probation, and 

 when the classes are evacuated from the school for over- 

 seas at stated intervals the choice of individual men must 

 always be left to the Commandant, who judges, not by the 

 length of time a man has been in the school, but by the 

 results of that man's work. Some men reveal themselves 

 much quicker than others, and it is a mistake to have the 

 training period bound by any particular time, as regards 

 the individual man. Some men will show very quickly 

 that they are quite unfitted for the work, and these should 

 be returned to their units at once. Others, again, take 

 pleasure in their duties from the commencement, and display 

 initiative, and when they thoroughly understand their duties 

 they can be transferred to the Royal Engineers and are 

 ready for service in the field. This system of selection 

 should apply to all ranks of the establishment, including 

 officers. It should be understood that most of the work 

 is technical, and the instructors require certain mental 

 qualifications. The training of messenger and guard dogs 

 is so different from every other kind of dog work that 

 practically anything that a man has learned before about 

 dogs has to be forgotten before he is qualified to be trained 

 himself, and to train others. Added to this, the fact of 

 managing several hundred dogs is a new lesson to learn in 

 itself. 



All officers should be appointed to the school on pro- 

 bation. 



