DOGS OF WAR

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23587, 14 March 1942, Page 8

DOGS OF WAR

—*— TRAINING ESTABLISHMENT NEAR LONDON

The first and only establishment of its kind in Great Britain, at an Army school near London, is now training dogs lent by their owners for service during the war. Hitherto the work has been largely experimental: now a regular system is turning out fully trained dogs at a rapid rate. And. of the dogs offered, a much higher percentage than in Germany, where a large number had to be rejected as unsuitable, are proving useful for war service.

Messenger dogs, mostly Border collies and other sheepdogs, learn to carry dispatches swiftly and silently under realistic battle conditions. Others. Alsatians and crosses of lurchers, greyhounds, terriers, and so on, are trained in guiding patrols to enemy positions, or, for static defence, in giving warning of enemy approach. They act like pointers, although real pointers and other gun dogs cannot be used because their instinct for game might distract their attention from the war. Britain’s war dogs live in comfortable. roomy loose boxes, sometimes two or three iogelhor, and are fed on cooked horseflesh and biscuits. The officers and men who train them are selected for their peace-time experience with dogs - they fjrc cither breeders or trainers engaged in Britain’s important dog-breeding industry, now known to dog lovers in many quarters of the globe for its fine specimens of most breeds.