172 British War Dogs 



terrier accompanies him by tram from his home in the 

 suburbs of a large town to the university, in the centre of 

 the town. It often elects to return home by itself, and 

 always selects a tram in which to do so. If it finds the 

 tram is going in the wrong direction, it jumps off, and 

 either selects another, or continues its journey homewards 

 on foot. 



In connection with the training of dogs for messenger 

 work, I have found two points in connection with the 

 homing instinct, which rather seem to contradict each 

 other. First of all, it is observable that they do take note 

 of objects on the road, to assist them in their return home- 

 wards. One finds this by noting, that a young dog under 

 training, will sometimes take a correct course homewards, 

 and then at cross roads take the wrong turning. Showing, 

 that it has noticed the fact of the break in the road, but 

 has erred in the choice of the next move. I have seen such 

 a dog, a little further advanced in his training, run down 

 the wrong road some way, then stop, hesitate, and turn 

 back, and regain the cross-roads, and carry on along the 

 right road. In this case, the dog's sense of direction had 

 been, first of all, guided, then misled, by the visible appear- 

 ances of the route. Now the second point is interesting, 

 because it practically excludes the theory that noticing the 

 aspect of the country over which it has previouslv been 

 taken, is the manner in which the dog returns. It is, that 

 dogs work as well at night as in the day, and equally so in 

 mist. In fact, I may say that observations seem to point 

 to the fact that trained dogs, and even half-trained ones, 

 work better under these conditions than in daylight. 

 And this was also borne out in the field. The keepers have 

 related to me that on certain nights, when the conditions 

 were so bad, the night so dark and thick, the ground so 



