216 British War Dogs 



tains, the dogs were of great service in detecting enemy 

 movement at night. About this time, however, the fight- 

 ing began to subside. There is not the slightest doubt, 

 that these dogs would always be of inestimable service at 

 all isolated posts, open to enemy attack at night. 



On the North-West Frontier of India, for instance, there 

 should be an organized permanent sentry-dog service. It 

 would be extremely difficult for a sentry to be approached 

 at night, even by the most subtle rifle thief, without the 

 dog giving him sufficient warning to put him on his guard, 

 and the fact that he had such an ally by his side would 

 give him greatly enhanced confidence. 



Among Army officers I have found many objectors to the 

 idea of using dogs with sentries, and the arguments they 

 advance are always the same ; I should say, however, 

 that the objections come in every case from those who 

 have not tried the dogs. I have not found any of the 

 objections proven in actual practice. I will admit at 

 the same time, that this work in the Army must always 

 be administered by an expert. The dogs must be properly 

 trained at the training-school, and the whole service super- 

 vised and controlled by an officer, who thoroughly under- 

 stands the necessities of the work from the dog point of view. 

 I will here mention the arguments of the objectors : 

 i. That there is danger in the fact, that a sentry, 

 having a dog to depend on, will be tempted to be 

 careless in his work. 

 2. That the dog's barking would reveal the position, 

 and draw the enemy fire. 

 My answer to the first objection is, that under those 

 conditions, where there is no particular danger to life from 

 enemy attack, and where the sentry might, therefore, not 

 feel the same necessity for alertness, the work is likely to 



