74 British War Dogs 



and dieting in an intelligent manner is the quickest and 

 surest way to bring dogs into health again. I may also 

 add that prevention is better than cure, and if the dogs are 

 kept in the manner directed, well fed, well groomed, and 

 exercised, they will be happy, and when dogs are happy 

 they are always healthy. In the case of wounds or bites 

 from other dogs, I am very much against putting on any 

 ointment or medical dressing of any sort, beyond sometimes 

 a mere bandage. I find that the healing takes place much 

 quicker if the wound is kept clean and left alone. 



The Liaison Dog 



Before concluding these remarks on Messenger Dogs I 

 should like to mention the liaison dog— or the messenger 

 dog trained to run backwards and forwards. This system 

 of training was not adopted for the British Army as a whole, 

 for two good reasons. First, when the War Office found 

 that dog-messengers would be a valuable means of life- 

 saving to runners, and also for keeping up communication 

 with the front-line trenches, the order was for unlimited 

 output with the utmost celerity. The liaison training takes 

 double the time of the one direction method. Secondly, 

 the system of one direction running only necessitates one 

 set of keepers. In this case the keeper who has charge of 

 these dogs remains at the battalion headquarters, and his 

 dogs are taken from him up to the front-line trenches by 

 soldiers of the unit. When it is desired to send a message 

 the dogs are slipped, and readily run back to where they 

 last left their keeper. 



The liaison system, on the other hand, necessitates 

 two keepers to each set of dogs. The second keeper takes 

 the dogs outwards and slips each dog, himself remaining 



