522 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



of Belgium are especially notable. Those 

 of the town of Ghent, indeed, are famous 

 throughout the world, and specimens exhi- 

 biting particular skill in the detection and 

 tracking of evil-doers have been exported to 

 countries so far away as China and Japan. 

 The most intelligent of the Ghent police 

 dogs have usually been of Collie type. They 

 are systematically schooled in the pursuit 

 of their man whom they will follow over 

 high walls, through intricate alleys, across 



have been saved, and the riverside has been 

 rendered more safe for respectable pedestrians 

 in the hours of darkness. The dogs, which 

 are mostly of Retriever, cross-bred New- 

 foundland and Leonberg type, are kept in 

 special quarters in the police station on the 

 Quai de la Tournelle, and are told off for 

 duty in the daytime as well as at night. 



Travellers on the Continent may often 

 notice the dogs kept at the various octroi 

 cabins on the frontiers. These are used to 



DOGS OF THE RIVER BRIGADE, PARIS. 



country, and even into water until they 

 catch him, seize him, and hold him. They 

 perform regular service, and are sent on 

 their beat with policemen from ten o'clock 

 at night until dawn. 



With a number of Belgian Collies intro- 

 duced to form the nucleus of a working team 

 many of the American cities have lately 

 acquired the services of dogs as an assistance 

 to the police, not only in the tracking of 

 criminals but also in the work of finding lost 

 children and missing property, and in giving 

 the alarm on the outbreak of a fire. 



In much the same way the chiens plongeurs, 

 or swimming dogs, attached to the river 

 police, on the banks of the Seine in Paris, 

 are trained. In addition to tracking down 

 malefactors infesting the river banks, these 

 dogs are taught to rescue persons who have 

 accidentally fallen or intentionally thrown 

 themselves into the water from bridge or 

 quay. Since the inauguration of these useful 

 teams in 1900, a considerable number of lives 



assist in the detection and pursuit of 

 smugglers, at which work they arc remark- 

 ably clever ; but there is an even more 

 active and cunning class of dog employed by 

 the contrabandists themselves, who train 

 them to evade the vigilant douanier and his 

 canine assistants, and to carry consignments 

 of illicit goods across the frontiers at night 

 and in stormy weather, the loads of silk, 

 lace, tobacco, spirits, or other taxable com- 

 modities being packed in small compass 

 about their bodies and covered with a false 

 coat. The method of training these smug- 

 gling dogs is that of implanting in their 

 minds a rooted fear of all men in uniform, 

 and they are taught to make their journey 

 by unfrequented paths ; consequently they 

 steer clear of the uniformed guards at the 

 frontier stations, and make their way to 

 their destination by secret routes which are 

 frequently changed. The police dogs are 

 seldom a match for these cunning four-footed 

 contrabandists. 



