DOGS OF WAR

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 337, 19 January 1937, Page 6

DOGS OF WAR

j GERMAN EXPERIMENTS ARMY MESSAGES. The German Army's t( messenger dogs” are being made so efficient that | they can carry despatches between two , i points without ever having been over i the trial before. Moreover, the point s to which they must carry a message can be moved at will. < A little “drop can” does the trick ] Each of the two soldiers a “ messe- ( ger dog” carries or has a can from i which a strongly-smelling liquid* i: spilled every few yards. Dogs car. * easily deliver a message by sticking to 1 this scent, which is an artificial one no paralleled in natural condition:’. The popular belief that dogs follow their master's scent is a fallacy, ac cording to the German experts. Ali ' 'logs do is to follow a genera] “man 1 scent.” and if they meet a trail in the ( same general direction and then it goes , >ff at a tangent, they are just as likely to follow the wrong as the right trad —more likely, if the wrong trail is more recent. It is claimed that the new method ibvintes this disadvantage. The doff is not following his master’s scent o» covering a stretch by habit. It runs .vherever it is needed by following tin 1 listinctive smell from the “drop •an.”