DOGS AS CUSTOMS OFFICERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 22 June 1912, Page 10

DOGS AS CUSTOMS OFFICERS.

Dr Witzelhuber recently read a paper before the Austro-Hungarian police service on the use to which dogs may be turned. A'ready, the doctor pointed out, had been demonstrated the dog's great value, as an aid to the police watching the museums and as a lifesaver. The doctor would turn the friend of man to further account. He would make him a douanier, or Custom House officer, and in this capacity, according to the doctor, he would be most useful in the detection of smuggling, whether of lace or tobacco. Smugglers in Austria-Hungary have, it seems, borrowed an idea from the police, or possibly it is vice versa. They get a dog of the poodle type that is shaved, and place the lace or other contraband upon his back, and they cover it with a skin and set the dog out for a house across the frontier with which he is acquainted The dog has been taught to have nothing to do with douaniers or other suspected persons, whom he avoids with great dexterity. He makes for the house of the receiver, where he knows that a good meal is awaiting him, and after his business is done the dog sets out for home. Dr Witzelhuber thinks that the smuggler dog could be corrupted. Make friends with him, he says, and give him a better meal. Moreover, the trainers could easily teach some of the police dogs to follow their smuggler brothers so as to discover the depots or receiving houses. This being done, they would lead human officers to the suspected houses.