CLEVER DOGS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 32, 9 February 1929, Page 20

CLEVER DOGS

TESTS OF OBEDIENCE

Dogs marked out by their intelligence, obedience, speed, and genoral usefulness took part in tho open polico ' dog trials for Alsatians at-the Crystal Palace, London, recently.

The dogs were . given " the strictest tests for obedience, such as lying for fifteen minutes in an open field motionless, while their master walked away, and being,tempted with a juicy piece of meat thrown to them, which they were not allowed to touch.

At the slightest sign or muttered word from lheir master when running

at full-speed "across a field they had to stop dead'and lie down or return and retrieve an article some 100 yards away. The hardest test of all was the criminal work. :; A! man was carefully ,pa(lded and hidden in the crowd. They had to find the '■ criminal, "bay" him •without touching,him, escor^ him, defend their master, from an'attacl< with a gun and stick; chase the criminal when he ran away, and, severest of all, return from chaso at a word shouted from tlulr master. In every action they watched the eyes of their master as though reading his. thoughts and anticipating hi? next command. .', After each test they would lie at his feet waiting patiently. A "Daily Mail" reporter devised a test which he asked Mr. G. Robertson, of Putney, S.W., to allow his dog, Crumstone Aello, to attempt. 'This clog ia one of the few in England which have passed . the German police dog tests, and was trained by Police-Con-stable Whit'fleld, of Putney.

. Ho offered. Mr. Robertson a coin, !and asked him to mark it. It was then placed, hidden beneath several other coins, behind a building-some 20 yards away. The dog found the coins, picked up. the marked one in his teeth, and brought it to Mr. Eobertson, though he had handled. it. for only five seconds. The animal.found it in Mr. Robertson's pocket later, and then, after it had been handled ;;.;again by the "Daily Mail" reporter; still, easily picked it out. • ■ . '.' ■ :

"I have been offered more than £900 for the dog, but I refused it," said Mr. .Robertson. . '