CHAPTER VII 



GUARD DOGS 



" There watched before the Miser's gate, 

 A very cur, whom all men seemed to hate, 

 Gaunt, savage, shaggy with an eye that shone 

 Like a live coal, and he possessed but one, 

 . . . His master prized him much, his name was Fang." 



Crabbe. 



BEFORE enlarging on the work done in the war by 

 dogs, in connection with the protection of property, 

 etc., it may be of interest to remark on the extreme anti- 

 quity of this disposition in the dog to guard territory or 

 property. In the historical chapter in this book, there 

 is already reference to this, but it would appear that this 

 quality of mind is possessed, even by carnivorous animals 

 in their wild state. Professor Romanes states : 



" Most carnivorous animals in their wild state have an 

 idea of property, and the manner in which certain preda- 

 ceous carnivora take possession of more or less definite 

 areas, as their hunting grounds, implies an incipient notion 

 of the same thing. From this germ, thus supplied by 

 nature, the art of man has operated in the case of the dog, 

 till now, the idea of defending his master's property has 

 become in this animal truly instinctive." 



Mr. Romanes gives an amusing instance of this in- 

 stinctive habit of guarding, in the case of a young puppy 

 which he reared : 



183 



