164 British War Dogs 



It must be confessed, that in trying to account for the 

 cause of this wonderful instinct in his four-footed friend, 

 man is hopelessly nonplussed, and can only admit with 

 admiring humility, that in this respect at all events, dog 

 beats man completely. 



I have instanced how the Messenger Dogs were fre- 

 quently taken up to the line by night and slipped in the 

 early dawn, with uniform success, and very often they 

 deliberately chose a different way to return. In civilian 

 canine life, also, there are numerous cases of dogs being 

 taken long distances by train, and of their finding their 

 way home by road. An authentic case is that of a dog 

 which belonged to the Royal Kennels at Windsor, in the 

 reign of George III. It was carried to London in a car- 

 riage. From there it was taken down into Lincolnshire. 

 Within a month it had escaped, and found its way back 

 to Windsor. 



Another case, is of a shooting dog, which was sent to a 

 purchaser sixty miles off, and found its way back whenever 

 it could escape. When I was in the Vosges, visiting the 

 French Army in 1915, a war dog, which had been demobi- 

 lized, and had been sent to the rear, appeared at its old 

 quarters, apparently highly indignant at its services being 

 dispensed with. One of my own companion dogs, on 

 being taken by road for' the first time to a busy town 

 ten miles off, was lost there. A short time after, a little 

 grey, hurrying figure was seen scudding across the high 

 land towards the house, — a way it had never been taken, 

 but which was much shorter than by road. 



These last instances are all cases of naturally-developed 

 homing instinct, but all dogs do not have this equally 

 developed. It exists, however, in nearly every dog, and 

 can be cultivated and accentuated. This, of course, has 



