Researching Experiences

While at the Living with Animals Conference a few weeks ago, I attended a talk concerning dog training techniques. One dog trainer discussed was a man named Konrad Most, a police commissioner for the Royal Prussian police. He headed efforts in the early 1900s to train dogs for police work. Ultimately, his techniques were applied to military dogs as well and he proved to be the true pioneer of  World War I military working dog training. Indeed, Most influenced Lieutenant Colonel Richardson, albeit to a limited degree: Most used more inhumane techniques while Richardson focused on positive reinforcement. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that Most is credited with developing ideas similar to operant conditioning twenty-odd years prior to B.F. Skinner’s work in the same subject.

Where does Most fit into my research? Fortunately, Most published a training manual entitled, Training Dogs: A Manual. I recently requested it from the library’s ILL and I am hoping to receive an English version of it soon (it was originally published in German). Most’s manual will serve as context for Richardson’s work and the development of his techniques during World War I.

Another source I discovered recently is an article published in the journal, Anthrozoos, in 1991 by Elizabeth Lawrence entitled, “Animals in War: History and Implications for the Future.” Though published twenty-four years ago, this article still proves highly relevant to my research. Indeed, Lawrence adds interesting perspective to my preliminary thoughts on the ethical issues of dogs in warfare. I will be adding some of her ideas to a “meaty” footnote in my paper.

This week, I was able to use the services of our library’s Interlibrary Loan Service once again (Virginia Tech’s librarians are probably getting tired of me requesting so many different books and articles, particularly those that are rare or out of print!) One such request, which I fully expected to be impossible to find, was an article written by Lieutenant Colonel Richardson (whom I have spoken and written of before, the founder of the British War Dog School) and it is entitled, “Trained Dogs Prove Invaluable in Scouting and Ambulance Work.” What is interesting about this particular article is its early date, supposedly 1912, when Richardson was purportedly first learning of the German army’s work with dogs. I think this source will be a welcome addition to the section of my project entitled, “Dogs as Soldiers” and will add more insight into the history of World War I dogs, in particular, and Richardson’s thoughts on war dogs and their reliability as workers and soldiers on the fighting front.

Another source I discovered this past week is a book entitled, Animals and War: Studies of Europe and North America. This book, published in the UK in 2013, was on display at the Living with Animals conference I attended last weekend in Berea, Kentucky. I have yet to pick it up from the library (it just arrived yesterday) but from perusing through it at the conference, I already know that it has a section entitled, “Canine Soldiers, Mascots, and Stray Dogs in U.S. Wars: Ethical Considerations.” This could potentially be a highly useful chapter for me and my research and perhaps could prove relevant for the section of project that discusses civilian morale on the U.S. home front during World War I. 

This past week I have been modifying and at times, completely changing the rough draft of my research project. One task I have been given is to uncover more source material concerning civilian morale during World War I in order to boost my footnotes and bolster my overall argument. Fortunately, I quite effortlessly discovered information concerning the British and American home fronts during the Great War.

The British home front proved to be the most interesting for me. After paying closer attention to the dates of newspaper and magazine publications concerning war dogs, I discovered that as the war continued on into 1917 and 1918, more and more canine exploits appeared in popular and widely available media in order to boost morale. In Great Britain, a morale booster was desperately needed. David Monger’s, Patriotism and Propaganda in First World War Britain: The National War Aims Committee and Civilian Morale, provided me with a great deal of information concerning the British war front. According to Monger, morale waned in 1917 and 1918 due to the combination of worker strikes, continual fear of bodily harm (from air raids, for example), and unrest concerning the Russian Revolution of 1917. Thus, depictions of heroic dogs became part of a wider morale boosting campaign.

In terms of the American home front, such harsh war time conditions were not present in the United States as they were overseas. Furthermore, the United States had little overall involvement in World War I, particularly due to its late entry. Nevertheless, depictions of dogs regularly appeared in American newspapers and magazines, even if wired from London or elsewhere in Europe. Ultimately, my main source for information concerning the American home front during World War I is borrowed from the thesis of former Brown University history MA student Alison Laurence and her thesis entitled, “Patriot, Pet, and Pest: America Debates the Dog’s Worth During World War I.” In this thesis, Laurence argues that dogs were anthropomorphized in the depictions of them from the front (that is, they are depicted as possessing human-like qualities). She also discusses overall attitudes of Americans towards dogs during this time period, particularly pertinent to my project. I unearthed Laurence’s thesis last semester while researching for my historiography paper in Historical Methods and I am ecstatic that it has proven more useful for me than I ever would have imagined.

Image Source: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?486309-(TGW-AAR)-Over-the-Top-Lads!

After our discussion in class last week, I have taken another stab at my focus statement and have attempted to turn it into an argument:

Dogs boosted civilian morale during WWI because they were portrayed to the public as heroes. This can be surmised from the widely available published reports of dogs that saved soldiers’ lives, served as mascots, and risked their lives to deliver messages on the war front. 

Or a bit more developed:

By examining contemporary training manuals, photographs, and newspaper and magazine articles between 1914 and 1920, this paper will uncover the means by which dogs boosted civilian morale and represented a less terrifying depiction of the fighting front. This paper will argue that dogs played a critical role in World War I, both as partners of humans on the battlefield and as symbols of the heroism and sacrifice the war demanded. Indeed, dogs not only transformed the war experience for individual soldiers but also contributed greatly to the overall war effort. Furthermore, dogs served as a reminder for those on the home front that every contribution helped, no matter how small or seemingly trivial and that soldiers were not alone in the trenches. What will result is insight into one type of war hero that has been all but forgotten in modern times and whose contributions during World War I should no longer be overlooked.

For this week’s source update, I thought I would discuss two books that I came across recently. I stumbled upon these secondary sources while searching through the bibliographic information of some of my other monographs such as War Dogs: Tales of Canine Heroism, History, and Love and Animals in the Military: From Hannibal’s Elephants to the Dolphins of the U.S. Navy. More specifically, I sought these sources out due to their inclusion of information concerning the fate of war dogs once World War I had ended. Indeed, this has been a tricky bit of information to pin down. It seems that the lack of evidence (i.e. the silence) relaying the fate of soldier dogs speaks volumes. Thus, I have had a difficult time unearthing such information. Nevertheless, these two books are proving to be helpful in that particular area, at least to some extent.

The first book is entitled War Dogs: A History of Loyalty and Heroism and it is by Michael G. Lemish. I received this book through the Interlibrary Loan service of our main library. Published in 1996, this monograph covers the origins of military dogs, dogs in World War I,  World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and lessons learned after each of these conflicts. Ultimately, it is chock full of useful information. However, with the number of secondary sources I am already using for my research project, I will be interested to see how much of this book’s material I actually end up using. In terms of what I was searching for in particular, this book supplies the following: “The French military, then posessing fifteen thousand dogs in its employ, destroyed the animals as its great war machine demobilized. The vast quantities of dogs used by the British, Germans, Italians, and Russians faced the same fate” (29). It goes on to argue what I had previously ascertained from the lack of material concerning this subject: “The actual number will never be known since these events were never accurately recorded. Compassion within the military–then and now–is often a precious commodity” (29). Interesting thoughts, indeed.

The other secondary source I uncovered this past week is Soldier Dogs by Maria Goodavage, published in 2012. This is yet another book that covers the history of war dogs and their experiences in a variety of wars. Similarly to Rebecca Frankel’s War Dogs: Tales of Canine Heroism, History, and Love, it also studies more current conflicts such as Afghanistan and Iraq. I have not had the opportunity to properly mine this book for potential material but I plan to do so in the next few days. As the deadline for the rough draft of my research project is fast approaching (March 1st!) I may have to wait and see what sections of my paper will need more honing and crafting before I delve extensively into more research. Regardless, I believe this book could potentially be useful and I will add it to my now large (and ever-growing) stack of primary and secondary sources.

This past week, I delved more deeply into a source I had found previously: British War Dogs, Their Training and Psychology. This training manual, published in 1920, is similar to that I reported on before by the Red Cross, it includes information on different dog breeds, the proper way to care for them, and the intricate means by which soldier dogs must be trained in order to prepare for battle. This manual is different, however, in that it was created by the pioneer of British canine use in World War I: Lieutenant Colonel E.H. Richardson. Richardson observed German success with dogs prior to the Great War (beginning as early as the 1870s) and strove to convince his compatriots of the usefulness of dogs. Eventually, he was able to convince the British military to create its own canine units and founded the British War Dog School in order to train the dogs himself. Richardson proved to be incredibly successful and other countries followed his techniques to develop their own dog units. Richardson’s manual plays a vital role in my research project and it is a particularly useful source for me.

Another source I unearthed recently is a book I requested through our library’s Inter-library Loan System. This book entitled, Colonel Richardson’s Airedales is devoted to Richardson and the work he accomplished with his wife prior to, during, and after World War I. This book provides a great deal of background information concerning dogs in war, in general, Richardson’s humble beginnings, and a more intimate look into Richardson’s life as he developed and ran his British War Dog School. I am grateful that I was able to retrieve this book from another library and that I have been able to put the university’s inter-library loan system to good use for my project thus far.

Image Sources:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/e9/3d/bb/e93dbb0bd50f8e4d14a91e0480469d33.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Colonel-Richardsons-Airedales-British-1900-1918/dp/1550592483

This past week, I unearthed more highly interesting and potentially useful primary sources for my research paper. For starters, I discovered an article from the well-known magazine Vanity Fair in September 1916 concerning war dogs. Here is a snapshot of the article:

This article explores the work done by dogs on the Front, dispelling the myth that dogs were only used as mascots for soldiers. I will be using this article as part of my primary research into public reactions to the use of soldier dogs during World War I.

I also mined a photo archive from The Atlantic that I had discovered previously.This archive is chock full of animal photos, many of them dogs. I plan to use some of these in my research paper, though I have not entirely decided if I will be analyzing each photograph or if I will simply include them as a supplement to my research. I have included some of my favorites here:

[German Messenger Dog]

[Dog Ready to Search for Wounded Soldiers]

Sources:

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/WW1_dogs_pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/wwianimals/