In Search of the Gamekeeper and His Night Dog
I have had Bullmastiffs since 1980. It was love at first sight.
I did a lot of training with my Bullmastiffs, including Schutzhund sport, which included a WH (Wachhunde) title to show off the dog’s guarding abilities, but no bitework. My second Bullmastiff, “Vicki” (Ch. Tauralan Quees VicToria, CD, BH, WH, TT) was an amazing girl. Her WH trial astounded me — and the spectators, too. There was an element where I and Vicki were behind a closed door, and a Bad Guy harassed us, then ran away toward a tree with a ladder. When I opened the door, my 110-pound girl was faster than a Malinois after the helper, half-climbed the tree and was within one inch of biting his butt as he got away up the tree. That was a Night Dog chasing a poacher, many generations away from the real thing, and the instincts were still intact in the Bullmastiff.
Right now I have a girl, Gigi, who has an amazing discrimination of people. She is very friendly, but any “off” behavior or gesture and she alerts, always to the right degree. I always wondered where all that came from.
Social Engineering
In England, conflicts between landowners and common people have a long and torturous history, spanning close to 1,000 years. The English forests included common land where people could hunt, collect firewood and let their own cow or pig forage.
When the Danish King Cnut became King of England in 1016, he introduced Forest Laws in his “Carta de Foresta,” which severely restricted the use of the forests by common people. They could no longer hunt with dogs, for example. Owning a Greyhound was prohibited. The laws were supposed to be for preservation of large areas of forests, so that the King and his nobles would have plenty of large game to hunt. At that time the King had absolute power over his subjects and was appointed by God (“Dei Gratia”). King Cnut’s Forest Laws were just the first steps to completely control the land and make hunting a royal prerogative.
Tensions intensified after 1066, when King William the Conqueror grabbed more forest land and enclosed it as “deer parks” so that the king and his merry companions could hunt deer and other large prey. The Hunt, “La Chasse,” was all the rage among royalty and nobility. People chased large prey like deer or boar on horseback and used various types of dogs to find, pursue and kill large prey.
The 15th-Century Le Livre de Chasse ("The Hunting Book") by Gaston Phébus illustrates the specialized dog types used in medieval hunts.
One effect was more variations of dogs used at the different elements of “la chasse.” Some distinct canine types emerged — such as lymers (Scenthounds used on leash), coursing dogs like greyhounds, alaunts and large “mastiffs” as catch dogs. Mastiffs were large, broad-mouthed hounds used for gripping and holding a deer or boar until the King could catch up and kill the prey.
Mastiffs were also used as guards for persons and property. Commoners were allowed to have mastiffs but only if they paid a tax and crippled the toes of the dog, so that the dog could not chase and catch game.
By the 13th Century, one third of English forests and land were under the authority of Forest Laws and used as hunting grounds by the king and the aristocracy. Commoners were not allowed to hunt, but some common land was preserved where people could graze their animals and collect firewood. Naturally, in spite of very heavy penalties, poaching was rampant.
The Normans also started an enclosure movement, a practice whereby open land used by the people was transferred to one person who enclosed it into smaller pieces with hedges and rock barriers. One effect was more poverty as small tenant farmers were forced off the land, but the enclosures freed up land for grazing and hunting for the landlords. This practice continued on a small scale for centuries.
In the 1700s, agricultural techniques progressed, and landlords started keeping farm animals together in enclosures rather than roaming free, so that they could control breeding. The government initiated an official, much more extensive enclosure movement that continued into the 1800s. The wealthy took the opportunity to acquire land and bought or seized farmland for enclosure, put up hedges, and turned agricultural land into fenced grazing grounds for sheep and other livestock.
After Waterloo this made economic sense, as farm product prices had declined, and wool prices increased, and it was more profitable to turn village farms into enclosed grazing for sheep. That trend reversed itself later, but by then large areas of England had been enclosed. Keeping livestock fenced in also gave landowners control of breeding and the opportunity to improve and create new breeds of livestock. These new and improved cattle could then be shown and get prizes at the increasingly popular and prestigious agricultural shows.
The enclosure movements also meant that the landowning classes could now use the grazing fields for the hugely fashionable Victorian upper-class sports of hunting and shooting. Hunting and shooting as “sport” were their privilege. Firearms had improved, and during the Victorian era the old blunderbuss was retired in favor of more efficient sport guns. The newer firearms made it possible to shoot wildfowl in the sky, so shooting grouse and pheasant became popular pastimes for “sportsmen.” The “bag” for a day could be ridiculous. It was not unusual for a party to bag hundreds of pheasants in a day, and there are references to “sportsmen” bagging thousands of game fowl over a couple of days. Of course, none of that “bag” of hares, pheasants and other birds went to people who could really have done with some of that — the rural poor. No wonder game had to be specially protected.
One consequence of more enclosures was that millions of subsistence peasants living on common land or as tenants were displaced with nowhere to go. They could no longer be self-sufficient, grow their own food and graze their own cow and pig on the common land. Many emigrated; some stayed on the land as paid farm labor, and many relocated to urban areas as factory workers or into the coal mines. The industrialization process intensified during the Victorian era and could absorb a never-ending number of workers.
With the enclosure movements, Forest Laws and Game Laws multiplied, and they gave landlords and gamekeepers new powers over the poor. Game was owned, controlled, tended, hunted, killed, sold and eaten by the landowners, but traditionally peasants had been allowed some limited use of forests and land, like taking firewood and killing rabbits for food. Landowners now let it be known that not only did they own the land — they also owned all game and plants on that land. During some periods it was even illegal to take firewood and rabbits.
Here is one example from The New Game Law of 1831 for England and Wales:
A Dangerous Profession
The Game Laws provided a safety guard of status quo of the upper classes. Poaching could be viewed as an affront not just to property, but to their property rights. This merited severe punishments.
Poaching was considered a serious property theft. Poaching convictions soared. From the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, poaching was rampant; poaching gangs killed many gamekeepers — and their dogs. The penalties were severe, and included the death penalty. Transportation to the Empire colonies was common, though after 1776, destinations to America were naturally removed. Australia with the dreaded Botany Bay and Van Diemen’s Land became the alternative destinations. The penalties of death and expulsion were removed during the latter half of the 1800s, but years in jail and heavy fines remained.
Illustration of a poacher from the 1878 book "The Gamekeeper at Home" by British naturalist Richard Jeffries.
Penalties were heavier for poaching at night than during daytime. There were substantially more convictions for daytime than for nighttime poaching. There are reliable statistics of poaching convictions from 1870, after which convictions for poaching exhibited a somewhat downward trend. In 1870, there were about 11,000 convictions for poaching, out of which only 523 were for night poaching. By 1900, convictions were down to less than 7,000, out of which 386 were night-poaching.
So it was more dangerous to poach at night, but the risk of discovery was less. That is, except for those places where the gamekeepers had Night Dogs.
The Gamekeeper
The gamekeeper managed all the land areas a landowner had. He was a highly skilled worker who mostly carried respect and some prestige, though he was not always as highly regarded by the villagers on the large estates. Not surprisingly, most villages included a few poachers.
The gamekeeper worked to ensure there was a constant supply of game for the large hunting and shooting parties that took place on the weekends. He was a good sportsman and an excellent shot. He also managed woodland and lakes on the property. He patrolled the estate with the intent of keeping poachers away.
Donald Urquhart, head stalker on the Inverewe estate in Scotland, late 1800s. Some gamekeepers, like Urquhart, specialized in managing the hunt of large game.
When the Game Laws were put in effect, they were upheld by gamekeepers, who were not just employed by landowners, but also sworn in and deputized with substantial legal powers. A gamekeeper could search and arrest anyone suspected of poaching. Although he might not have been well paid, he was given a cottage and allowances in kind, like game and being able to keep a cow and a pig on the land.
However, being a gamekeeper could be hazardous to the point of death. For example, between 1833 and 1843, the official figure of gamekeepers being murdered on the job was 42, and some years as many as 10 would be killed in one year.
A gamekeeper was well armed with weapons, shotguns, man-traps, snares, and deeply dug pits as traps for poachers. I found a common type of antique trap illustrated online. Gamekeepers likely used something much like this to trap poachers. The poachers used similar models to trap rabbits and hares.
Common type of trap for animals — or humans.
In the 1800s, the best anti-poaching weapon was the Keeper’s Night Dog. A well-trained Night Dog was incredibly effective, as well as valuable, even to the point that when someone injured a Night Dog, the offender had to go to court and pay a fine.
A story about poachers and their brave and skilled Bull and Mastiff dog was described in the 1907 book A Practical Guide to the Game Laws by Charles Row:
Hidden by the side of a drive, the keepers saw the poacher approaching, his pockets “well filled” and his gun carried in a “sporting attitude” as he looked up into the trees for more pheasants to shoot. Spotting the keepers, the poacher bolted. When it appeared he would outrun them, the keepers unleashed their “very valuable watch dog (bull and mastiff), trained to prevent poachers from getting away by running round them, which was muzzled.”
As soon as the dog caught up, the poacher “deliberately put the barrel of his gun (an old muzzle loader) to the side of the dog and fired.” The dog reeled and fell, and in his haste to escape the poacher lost not only the still-warm pheasants he had bagged, but also his cap, coat and gun.
The poacher, who was well known to the keepers, was eventually convicted. He was fined £3 and costs of £2 1s. 6d, or one month for the poaching, and he was ordered to pay £20 toward the injury of the dog.
As you see, the penalties for injuring the dog were more than all the others.
As for the dog, he was found covered in blood, his shoulder blade shattered, about 200 yards from where he had been shot. Taking a door off its hinges to make a stretcher, the keepers transported the dog to a veterinary surgeon.
“We are glad to say the dog eventually, recovered, and goes about again as much as usual, though not as he was,” the account concludes. “The veterinary got exceedingly attached to his patient, and feelingly told us that when he had been dressing the wound, and using his knife to get away the bad flesh, not a whimper ever came from the dog, which only looked up pleadingly to him, as much to as to say: ‘Be as merciful as you can, governor, with that knife.”
Most — but not all — gamekeepers were men. Polly Fishbourne was a gameskeeper at Holkham in Norfolk in the early 1800s. She was said to be the terror of poachers, as well as one renegade bull, who reportedly backed off at the sight of her, having remembered a previous encounter where she shot him in the muzzle.
Who Were the Poachers?
There is a strong correlation between poverty and poaching. For centuries poachers were the rural poor who needed food to keep from starving when farming had disastrous seasons. Nabbing a hare, pheasant or rabbit for their own family was often the one thing that kept starvation away.
When the enclosure movements increased in the 1700s and the beginning 1800s, one of the aftershocks was thousands of displaced rural poor. Infuriated by the loss of their cottages and access to commons for grazing, some formed gangs that traveled to enclosures not just for poaching but also for destruction of the landowner’s property. They were out for revenge as much as for game to eat or sell, and could be violent and brutal. This became a serious problem for landowners, and being a gamekeeper turned into a hazardous occupation.
In the mid-1800s, food prices increased, and the poor could no longer feed their families on their earnings, so poaching even became a necessity. Landowners had so much privilege and control that poachers at times even became a sort of Robin Hood heroes to villagers for bucking the system.
During the latter part of the 19th Century, a third kind of poacher emerged. These came in gangs from industrialized urban areas in order to bag game for sale to the burgeoning middle class. An ever-growing middle class had appeared from industrialization; they now had extra money and even some leisure time for sports, picnics and dinner guests. Game dishes were coveted for the dinner tables in the cities. Thus, the urban gangs could make extra money by selling game. These poachers were serious, violent, and armed with clubs and shotguns.
They could be very clever, as we see in the illustration above, where a warning system was devised. The poacher’s dog was equipped with a candle lamp fastened to its head, with one side being tin, and the rest glass. When the dog heard strangers approach, naturally he turned his head in that direction, thus warning the poachers. I really do not know if this is true, but I could not help including this as something ingenious. Poachers also often brought a bitch in heat to distract the Keeper’s Night Dog. A clever gamekeeper would keep and train a bitch as a Night Dog as well as a male.
Landowners hired more gamekeepers and assistants. The gamekeepers used more trained Night Dogs, particularly for patrolling at night. Poaching at night was nowhere near as common as during daytime, but if you were caught, you were toast. The Night Dogs turned out to be very effective. Poachers were more afraid of the Night Dog than the humans. When a bad fight took place, it was the dog that was attacked first.
The Night-Dog Recipe
Given the violence and brutality of many poachers, a Night Dog had to be intimidating, as well as strong, agile, courageous and tenacious. The dog had to be able to think on his own, and have a strong fighting drive. He had to be able to trail and catch poachers, and then hold them until the keepers and watchers caught up, and then the dog would go after second and third poachers. The dog also had to be able to stay in the fight with the villains during their assault on it with clubs, guns and other weapons.
These functions determine a good Night Dog’s morphology. Large dogs are more powerful, but there was also the requirement of agility and endurance, so it could not be too large. It had to have strong bones and muscles. Stronger muscles need larger size bone for attachment. A Night Dog also had to have a strong bite, and the power to bite and hold, even when adversaries got incredibly violent, so it had to be a dog with a large and wide skull, and a wide jaw — a largish, broad-mouthed dog.
We now understand more about WHY and the biomechanics of interactions between bones and muscles. For example, recent modeling studies show that bite force increases with the width of the skull and the width of the jaw. People in the Victorian era knew animals intimately, and how they worked much better than people do today; the Victorians had working with animals internalized from observations and experience. Not much else mattered, other than perhaps, given the English climate, the coat should be somewhat waterproof.
Those are a lot of requirements. The ideal Night Dog was a large and healthy dog with a strong bite, agile, bold and protective, as well as biddable for obedience, a good tracker and fighter, not interested in chasing other animals, nor bothered by cold water, loud noises, impervious to pain, etc. The brindle markings were preferred as they made the dog merge with the environment in the dark. Sometimes a bitch was favored over a male dog, as she would not be distracted by the poacher’s bitch in heat — in fact, the opposite. Personally, I have always found the Bullmastiff females more protective than the males.
Early Night Dogs were just any large broad-mouthed guardian-type dog.
Some gamekeepers preferred Bloodhounds or Bloodhound crosses, due to the Bloodhound’s superb noses. But pretty soon dogs with strong protective instincts became favored. The early Newfoundland was a strong guard dog, so they were sometimes used in cross-bred Night Dogs. Mastiffs, or rather mastiff-type dogs, had been the established strong guardians for homes and estates for centuries, so it was natural to select those.
An early Mastiff, with the hard gaze of a serious guardian.
During the 1700s and the early part of the 1800s, small mastiffs were preferred as Night Dogs. They had a long tradition as guards for homes, and as “the mastie in the house.” They were definitely intensely protective against strangers, so these smaller agile and protective mastiffs were a good fit for a Night Dog early on.
Ch. King Baldur.
The Victorian purebred mastiff was intimidating enough, but considered oversize for the purpose of patrolling, jumping over ditches etc. The above photo of the Mastiff Ch. King Baldur really illustrates this; King Baldur looks intimidating and powerful, but that size if too large for hiding in the bushes.
This particular dog is also of special interest in that he figures in both Mastiff and Bullmastiff pedigrees. King Baldur is behind some of Mr. Moseley’s early Farcroft bull-mastiffs.
In the 1903 book The Breaking and Training of Dogs by Hugh Dalziel and J. Maxtree, there is a chapter on Mastiffs that points out the importance of function before pure breeding:
“Keepers’ night dogs are taught to hold poachers … The dogs are generally of the mastiff breed, but more active, if less pure in pedigree, than show specimens, and, being used at night, are chosen of a dark colour — brindle or black.”
Mastiff-crosses were also common as Night Dogs. Mastiffs were crossed with Newfoundland, Ulmer Dogge, Alpine Mastiff, Bloodhound and Bulldog (those were pretty ferocious at the time) and used more or less successfully both as guardians for the home, and as Gamekeepers’ Night Dogs.
Detail from "The Browser's Halloo."
Above we see a Mastiff/Bloodhound Night Dog. It is a detail from a lesser known painting by Richard Ansdell “The Browser’s Halloo.” The painting is privately owned and was featured in a Kennel Gazette article in the 1940s. A “browser” is a gamekeeper in Scotland. The Night Dog stays with his gamekeeper and has no interest in chasing the deer.
Above is an example of a longhaired Night Dog ready to pounce on a poacher, likely a Mastiff/Newfoundland mix. The Newfoundland at that time was not the slobbery sweetie of today, but a sharp guardian. (See the illustration below.) For example, one Newfoundland, Cabot, was given to the Prince of Wales, and was shown and got first prize at the Islington dog show in 1864. There is an interesting comment in an article about this show: “Like all his breed, he is quarrelsome, and this propensity has led him into serious trouble since his arrival in this country.” Boy, would I love to know exactly what Cabot did! It also strikes me how well this long-haired Night Dog suits the cold, foggy and wet nights in England.
An early Newfoundland dog, 1803.
Gradually the Bulldog and Mastiff cross became the most favored type for a working Night Dogs. In order to get increased courage and fighting drive, crosses with the feisty baiting Bulldog were not uncommon in many breeds. The so called Bull and Mastiffs have a long history and are mentioned in several sources as guard dogs or fighting or baiting dogs since Elizabethan times. Queen Elizabeth I herself and her people were one bloodthirsty lot and spent a lot of time at the arenas of “blood sports.” Baiting bulls, bears, lions, etc., with mastiffs/bulldogs of various sizes was a very popular spectacle, as well as opportunities for betting. There was even a designated area in London for housing the “mastiffs” and the baiting and fighting arenas.
Many “true bred” Mastiffs in the 19th Century still had some bulldog in the background, as you can see from this quote from The Sportsman’s Repository in 1845:
“Nearly twenty years since, a Butcher at Mitcham in Surry, had reared, as he supposed a true-bred Mastiff from a puppy: … and not at all improbably, this true-bred Mastiff might have a dip or two of the Bull Dog blood in him.”
The Bulldog in the bull and mastiff crosses was nothing like the Bulldog of today. They were the Bulldogs of the bull- and bear-baiting arenas: ferocious, ready to bite anything with a frontal approach and hold on. The bull and mastiff crosses mentioned in magazine stories and in books from this time are typically described as “ferocious.” The Bulldogs were all different sizes with wide and shortened jaws designed for gripping and holding. Once bull-baiting was outlawed in 1835, this bulldog was much too aggressive and not suitable as a house dog. He lost his job and more or less disappeared, except for some areas in the Midlands.
From the mid-1800s, the Bulldog breed turned into a new not ferocious Bulldog, more suitable as a show and family dog. For reasons I will never understand, the breeders of this new Bulldog turned a supremely functional Bulldog into the freak monstrosity of today, with every morphological feature twisted and exaggerated. The Bulldog that was used in crosses with the Mastiff was more the bull-baiting type, or something in between that and the new, distorted one. From looking at a lot of written Victorian dog material I believe that for some time there was a Bulldog type that looked like a moderate new Bulldog.
The figure above shows the type of Bulldog from the mid-1800s that was likely used in many bull-and-mastiff cross-bred dogs mid to late 1800s, varying in size, fully functional, pretty feisty, moderated aggression. This is a bulldog from a painting by Chas Dudley (1826-1900). There is something a bit Bullmastiffy about him! I like him a lot: confident, curious, and cautious.
I cannot resist including this 1846 cartoon from Punch. The bulldogs vary as to looks and temperament, some phlegmatic, others pretty feisty. Bill George was a famous dog man and dog dealer. He bred a lot of Bulldogs and Mastiffs, starting from supplying bull-and bear-baiting bulldogs to the sport, then going with the times and supplying the more modern types of those breeds. He also imported the Alano Spanish bulldog to get more size in the Bulldog, which was rejected by the some in the show Bulldog community. Bill George was highly respected as a knowledgeable and fair dealer in dogs.
In the early to mid-1800s, a Mastiff breeder and gamekeeper, John Crabtree, was also involved in Night Dogs. He wanted a smaller, more agile mastiff, and in that he agreed with the famous dog dealer, Bill George. John Crabtree was the man much quoted in the Bullmastiff literature as the one who found a brindle bitch caught in a trap, and she became one of his foundation bitches for his mastiff breeding. He “always suspected she had some bull in her…”
W. Burton of Thorneywood kennels was a mastiff breeder and later a Bull Mastiff breeder. Mr. Burton bred, trained, and sold his own strain of brindle Night Dogs that were also quite hard and aggressive. He might well have used the old type of fighting Bulldog for crossing with Mastiffs to get a strong fight drive in his Night Dogs. A quote from him describes the perfect Night Dog:
“The typical Thorneywood night dog should be no less than 80 lbs and if it be 100 lbs and fit and agile, all the better. It should be dark with a clean close coat with little in the way of markings for easy concealment at night. It should fear no man or group of men, no matter how sinister their intention. It should be able to face whip cudgel and shotgun with equal enthusiasm and show no shyness or fear of the aforementioned. Once engaged with its tormentor it should grip like a vice and fight like a lion and never relinquish its hold of its own accord, even if it comes to serious mischief and takes its death. In my charge he should be obedient and faithful. In my home or in his kennel he should be quiet and good tempered. There is no better or hardier dog than a good night dog."
That is a lot to require from a dog. And Burton’s dogs fulfilled all these requirements.
Mr. Burton was also a showman and travelled to large dog shows with his famous brindle Night Dog Thorneywood Terror and three other Night dogs that we know little about. His dogs travelled in steel cages. For the shows he set up with the cages and used netting to enclose the whole arena to “keep the public safe.” He wanted to demonstrate the superiority of the Gamekeeper’s Night Dog. And he did. He challenged anyone in the audience to escape his muzzled brindle Terror. Of course, as with any challenge in Victorian times, money and betting were involved: betting on the dog or the challenger, as well as setting up a prize to any man who survived running from his meeting with Terror. Needless to say, that never happened, and the dog always won.
Mr. Burton and his shows were not a unique phenomenon. They were actually a sign of the times. Police forces were better organized, and dogs were discovered to be excellent partners in fighting crime and doing personal protection work. Belgium, for example, had a long tradition of training dogs for police dog work. Since the 1700s, night watchmen patrolled with mid-size protection-trained dogs.
The famous Thorneywood Terror.
On Trial
During the 1880s, a Belgian named Edmond Moecheron also travelled and put on “police dog” shows with his three Belgian shepherds and some helpers (decoys) to show off the dogs’ agility and protection work. Moecheron was a decade or two earlier than Burton. Who knows, maybe Burton got some ideas from Belgium? The way talk about dogs and dog people gets around in the dog community today, and assuming dog people talked dogs just the same during Burton’s time, I would be surprised if he did NOT know!
Belgian night watchmen with their protection trained dog. Note that the leg bite is exactly the same as we see today in some dog sports today. Once the dog gets a good grip on the criminal’s leg and pulls, the man goes down.
Contemporary with Burton there was also Max von Stephanitz in Germany, who created the German Shepherd for herding and protection work. In Holland, the Dutch Shepherd appeared as an excellent protection breed.
Protection-dog trials started by Moecheron became very popular in Europe at exactly the same time as Night Dog trials happened in England, where gamekeepers and Night dogs competed in segments that included obedience, agility and bite-work — for example, getting over a nine-foot palisade, a four-foot high jump, chasing and stopping a helper. These trials were independent of the Kennel Club, so there are no records of them.
Thorneywood Terror was also a popular stud dog, used in both English Mastiffs and Bull-Mastiffs. He is one of the early sires in Mr. Moseley’s Farcroft line. Later we also find Mr. Burton’s name in show catalogs, so he also bred Bull-Mastiffs for the show ring.
The Night dogs were an independent bunch, required to use their brains working in difficult and dangerous situations. As well as fit and agile, they were certainly aggressive, some with a strong killing instinct. They were muzzled for regular patrols and taught to pin a poacher on the ground, using their weight and front, and wait for the gamekeeper to catch up and arrest the man. If the situation turned dangerous, the muzzle came off and the dog made full use of his bite. It is a commonly repeated myth that the Bull and Mastiff Night Dogs never used their teeth, just their weight. But some poachers were armed and extremely dangerous, so the dog’s muzzle came off.
A Night Dog in the gamekeeper’s yard of dog kennels from The Gamekeeper at Home (1878). Here we see his hunting companions, as well as the Bull and Mastiff Night Dog. Most of the dogs are chained to the kennels. The Night dog has the day to recover from his hard work at night.
The Victorians loved reading and writing, and issued an abundance of printed material: newspapers, regular and irregular magazines, pamphlets, books, etc. Although there was plenty written by and about gamekeepers in England, the dogs involved were mostly the keeper’s spaniels and retrievers. Little was mentioned about the Night Dogs. Hunting and shooting sports were very popular and highly regarded, and so were all the dog breeds associated with these. Almost everything written about dogs in this period was about Sporting dogs. The guard dog for the home and grounds, “the Mastie in the House,” and the gamekeeper’s guard, the Night Dog, were seldom mentioned and apparently carried little respect — except by the burglars and poachers they met in their work!
In the stories about Night Dogs working, there is an emphasis that the dog always catches what he pursues, and pins and holds the victim. But what does it feel like to be pinned by a Night Dog? This story is a good yarn by an Englishman on a visit to Germany, helping The Baron to train Night Dogs. The training and the use of a muzzle were the same as in England. The Bavarian Night Dogs were of Great Dane types, called the Ulmer Dogge.
From Fores' Sporting Notes & Sketches magazine, 1899.
I had not taken a dozen steps before a dark body rose as it seemed from the earth and pinned me first to a tree, rolling from that to the ground. It was one of the hounds, and he had followed us on the scent from the glade where we closed in, and as we met, of course, went for me. He was angry too, doubtless thinking that the canon off the tree was due to my endeavour to escape. I had wit enough to lie still; and then I tried to think of the hounds’ names, trusting to luck to strike the right one; but I had paid but little attention to this matter, and only knew Fritz, Jager, Carl, Unzer, but none of them were right, and as if resenting the authoritative tone in which I spoke, the brute grew more angry and tried to tear me, fortunately being prevented by the very thin wire muzzle he wore, and the thinness of which I for the first time regretted. The foam from his mouth fell on my face and the continuous howl almost deafened me, while even my laboured breathing seemed to infuriate him, and I felt the strain was becoming too great to bear. It was a case of shutting my eyes and waiting patiently as I could, and under the tension I felt my consciousness slowly slipping away from me, and yet I dreaded to become unconscious while in the power of that angry brute, yet dare not make a move to try and recall my fast fleeting senses. The weight of the hound on my chest oppressed my breathing, the hot doggy smell was nauseating, and the lurid fire of his eyes seemed to burn even through my closed lids.
The sensation from getting stomped on and held by a Bull and Mastiff cross cannot be very different from as described here. This excerpt is also the only one I have come across describing the work of the Night Dog from the point of view of the victim. The illustration tells it all as well. And I can absolutely feel myself getting soaked from the drool and losing consciousness!