POLICE ALSATIAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1939, Page 10

POLICE ALSATIAN

FAMOUS SYDNEY DOG. DIRECTED BY WIRELESS. Sdyney’s'famous white police Alsatian, Zoe, has been trained to obey orders given by wireless. It was the first time anywhere in the world that police dogs trained for crime detection or assisting in searched for lost persons have been equipped with radio. Concealed in a shed, the dogs’ trainer, Constable G. Denholm, issued his commands through a portable wireless transmitting set. The messages were picked up by the dog through a receiving set strapped to the animal’s back like a miniature pack saddle. Speaking softly into the mouthpiece of the transmitting set, Constable Denholm told the dog to climb a ladder. Silently, at the far end of the paddock, the dog obeyed. “Zoe, Zoe, pick up the billy!” whispered Constable.Denholm. The dog searched the grass rapidly, found a billy-can, which had been dropped there, and picked it up, holding the handle tightly in her teeth. “Fill the billy with water!” was the next command. Zoe carried the billy to a tub of water, dragged the can through the water until it was filled, and carried it off triumphantly between her teeth. “Fire the gun, Zoe,” was the next instruction. The dog leaped to a revolver fastened to a pole in the ground, and with her teeth tugged a cord which was fastened to the trigger. At the command from the radio, Zoe also walked along a pole fixed 4ft above the ground, and turned a water tap on and off. Although she had been trained to respond to radio commands only during the previous four days, she obeyed the instructions to the letter. In crime detection the value of the radio would presumably be its comparative silence. Dogs so equipped could receive whispered Instructions while watching a suspected hidingplace without the necessity of shouting or whistling. At present, the tests are only in the experimental stage. Their practical use has yet to be demonstrated. The police have proved that the nerve of thieves has broken when they have been trained by an Alsatian. The dog moves on its quarry in silence, and more swiftly than any policeman could move in darkness. In tracking in hilly country, Constable Denholm thinks the radio sets will be helpful. He foresees that a dog can be sent to search on one side of a hill and directed all the time while the police search the opposite sice. A dog can be lowered on rope down a sheer cliff face where no policeman could go without risk. From the top of the cliff, the dog’s search can be directed through the loud-speaker.