The book of dogs; an intimate study of mankind's best friend (1919) (20210229249)

Title: The book of dogs; an intimate study of mankind's best friend
Identifier: bookofdogsintima00nati (find matches)
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: National Geographic Society (U. S. ); Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927; Baynes, Ernest Harold, 1868-1925
Subjects: Dogs
Publisher: Washington, D. C. , The National geographic society
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries



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THE NATIOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MA(V\Z1XE
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;.li h> W illiam l^ciil KIM'; i<Kn':.\ns on a si-.t-sAW M.()l LAM) The dog is man's oldest friend among the animals, and the one with whom he most willingly trusts his children. Both as playfellow and as protector, the dog has for centuries been a loved and loving member of countless households. he bark? How natural it would have been for him to do so ! But no, a bark or a growl might ha\e told tiie raiders they were discovered, and thus have pre- \ cnti'd the animal's own forces from giv- ing the foe a counter-surprise. So he wagged his tail nervously—a canine adap- tation of the wig-wag system which his master interpreted and acted upon, to the discomfiture of the enemy. Often whole companies were saved be- cause the dog could reach further into the distance with his senses 'than could the soldiers themselves. It was found that many dogs would do )Kitrol and scout duty with any detach- ment. But there was another type of dog worker needed in the trenches—the liai- son dog. trained to seek his master when- ever turned loose. Amid exploding shells, through veritable fields of hell, he would crawl and creep, with only one thought— to reach his master. Xor would he stop until the oliject of his search was attained. Many a message of prime importance he thus l)ore from one part of the field to another, and nought but death nr over- coming wound could turn him aside (see ))ages 2-6). But the work (jf the dogs of war was not limited to the front. Where the motor lorry was helpless, where the horse stood powerless to aid, where man him- self found conditions which even the iron muscle and the indomitable will that is horn of the fine frenzy of jiatriotism could not coiiqtier, here came the sled dog to the rescue. Alaska and Labrador contributed the motive power for the sleds that kept the men in their mountain-pinnacle trenches in the high Alps provisioned and muni- tioned in the dead of winter. In four days, after a very heavy snowfall, one kennel of 150 dogs moved more than fifty tons of food and other supplies from the