New England Bench Show poster from 1890 featuring popular dog breeds of the day:

 

 

A list of dog training books from a Dogdom Monthly issue from 1909::

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Great War - the front and trenches

As most people know, World War I was fought primarily from trenches and with horrible consequences to the soldiers and citizens.  Dogs and horses were principles in battle and casualties, as well.  Dogs were used to carry messages and locate injured soldiers.  The following is a photo of a French Sargent and his dog heading to the front both equipped with gas masks:

There is a brief blog note regarding the accounting for war dogs by the French military with 2 accompanying photos posted by Ptak Science books (Ptak Science Books is an appraiser and seller of anitquated books and maps.  Ptak was originally based in an office Washington D. C. in the Georgetown area:  http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2008/12/a-wartime-census-of-war-dogs-1918.html

A prominent war dog training book written in English by Lt. Colonel E. H. Richardson was published in 1921.  The book can be download from some of the following links:  





http://www.archive.org/stream/britishwardogsth00richrich/britishwardogsth00richrich_djvu.txt

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/26715

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23283100M/British_war_dogs_their_training_and_psychology

Richardson worked with various types of dogs, yet he is known for his corps of Airdales trained during World War I: 

Here in an undated photo the "Major Richardson" is pictured with some of his trained Red Cross Dogs:

 

 

 

 







Old Brittany photos (cont'd)

Photo of a Brittany on Raquette Lake, NY in the Adirondack Mountains from between 1905-1910 which was taken by William Henry Jackson, professional photographer.  This was either Jackson's own dog or a friend's dog.  The dog resembles a lineage of French Spaniels from French Canada: