Nazi Myth Transformed German Shepherds from Sheep Dogs into Tame Wolves

The German shepherd is a relatively recent creation. The Society for the German Shepherd Dog (Verein fur deutsche Schaferhunde) came into existence in 1899 in Stuttgart, the concept of a retired Prussian cavalry captain, Max von Stephanitz (1863-1936). Sheepdogs in that area were rather polymorphous and were not recognized as a breed, and the Society resolved to change this. The first German shepherd was not exhibited until 1907, but by 1923 there...

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In Conflicts Between Packs of Feral Dogs, Generals Know Who Will Watch Their Backs

Some of the most interesting work on the social behavior of feral dogs has been done in Italy. (See particularly the many interesting papers of Luigi Boitani on feral dogs in the Apennines. The picture shows such a dog.) Continuing this focus of Italian research is a recent paper by two scientists from Parma and one from Rome, looking at the participation of members of a feral pack in conflicts with another pack. In any conflict between groups...

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Police Dog Bites Are More Serious Than Bites by Pet Dogs and More Often Result in Hospitalization and Surgery

Do bites by police dogs differ from bites by pet dogs? Without having thought at all about it, I probably would have assumed that the difference would come from the fact a police dog is often trying to subdue someone who is running away, while a house pet might be inclined to bite someone playing too rough or too long, or doing something else the dog doesn’t like. There are other differences, according to a trauma physician who looked at records...

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Car Bomb Fragments Hold Enough Scent for Trailing Dogs to Follow Terrorists

A car bomb detonates on a roadside and destroys half of an American tank as it passes by. Parts of the steering wheel from the car holding the bomb and alligator clips from the bomb itself are recovered by a forensics team within an hour. A scent transfer unit is used to extract scent from the surface of the steering wheel and from an alligator clip. Three hours after the explosion, two bomb dogs arrive. One is scented to the gauze pad made by...

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Attacking Probable Cause from a Drug Dog’s Alert: Look at the Dog’s History and Check the Dashboard Video

A Salt Lake City police officer was staking out a house for drug and gang activity. He checked the plates of a Cadillac parked in front of the house and found that it lacked insurance and its registration had expired. When a man and a woman got into the car and began to drive away, the officer stopped them. Two minutes later an officer arrived with a K-9 patrol dog with narcotics detection training. This officer thought the car matched the description given of a vehicle involved in a robbery. While the first officer’s questioning continued,...

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Let Us Now Praise Gerun Moore

Gerun Moore with Chloe and a nurse on his 100th birthday.Chloe and I are a therapy dog team. When anyone asks as to who gets the therapy in “therapy dog,” I usually explain that we visit patients in hospitals, children in special education schools, residents in nursing homes, and so forth, implying that those we visit are the ones getting the therapy. Perhaps I also describe how Chloe cheers up the nurses, receptionists, janitors, parking lot attendants,...

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