Silent watchdogs

[silentdogs]

I am trying to find out the source of an old story (fiction or fact?) that I once read about dogs trained to be silent to catch thieves. In a small silver mining village, the villagers had many shops and houses where they kept their money and silver. Each house and shop was guarded by a specially trained dog. To outsiders, the town was a cacophony, with dogs barking constantly, day and night. Traveling thieves noted this and thought their pilfering would be undetected. One night, they broke into a shop while the owner was away. Oddly, the dog inside just wagged his tail and stopped barking. The thieves went to work cracking the safe. However, they noticed that the barking around them seemed to subside. All was not well. They soon heard shouting and were surrounded by angry armed villagers. As they were being led away, the thieves asked how there were found. It turns out the villagers had trained the dogs to bark constantly. However, if the dogs detected something wrong like intruders or other dogs no longer barking, they were trained to become silent. From the growing silence, the villagers knew exactly where to find the robbers. This would work even if the robbers killed the dogs. Have you ever heard this story or know its source? Thanks!

[Lainie]

It reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Silver Blaze."

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

[Chloe]

I can't imagine this would be either healthy for the dogs, or pleasant to live with.

[Lainie]

I never succeeded in training Pebbles to bark at a knock/doorbell, although to be fair I wasn't particularly consistent in my attempts.

[stoolie]

Originally Posted by Lainie

I never succeeded in training Pebbles to bark at a knock/doorbell, although to be fair I wasn't particularly consistent in my attempts.

She didn't notice when someone went "Bam Bam!"..?

[Lainie]

She did not.

Once a cop came to the door because a neighbor had complained about the barking dog in the yard behind mine. I explained where the noise was coming from, and then pointed out that my dog hadn't barked when the officer rang the doorbell after dark, or when I opened the door and stood there talking to the stranger.

[Onyx_TKD]

Originally Posted by silentdogs

I am trying to find out the source of an old story (fiction or fact?) that I once read about dogs trained to be silent to catch thieves. In a small silver mining village, the villagers had many shops and houses where they kept their money and silver. Each house and shop was guarded by a specially trained dog. To outsiders, the town was a cacophony, with dogs barking constantly, day and night. Traveling thieves noted this and thought their pilfering would be undetected. One night, they broke into a shop while the owner was away. Oddly, the dog inside just wagged his tail and stopped barking. The thieves went to work cracking the safe. However, they noticed that the barking around them seemed to subside. All was not well. They soon heard shouting and were surrounded by angry armed villagers. As they were being led away, the thieves asked how there were found. It turns out the villagers had trained the dogs to bark constantly. However, if the dogs detected something wrong like intruders or other dogs no longer barking, they were trained to become silent. From the growing silence, the villagers knew exactly where to find the robbers. This would work even if the robbers killed the dogs. Have you ever heard this story or know its source? Thanks!

I take it they must have also trained the dogs to bark while eating and sleeping, because otherwise there would be huge numbers of false alarms as the silence would spread every time a dog needed a snack or a nap. Those are some talented dogs. I wonder how long a pause counted as "not barking"--"Guys, robbery down the street!...Oh, never mind, it's just Bob's dog lagging behind on the tempo again."

[Not_Done_Living]

I used to live across the street from the Fire Hall.
for the first few weeks it would keep me up -- then i stopped hearing it -- my family would ask how i could live with such a constant racket.

If the dogs went silent -- i would expect it would take a while to notice it.
Its really hard to tell whats not there.

[TurquoiseGirl]

It's really not, though. I live quite near the local airport 1 mile away as the crow (or anything else) flies. One of the creepiest things about 9-11 is the silence after the planes were grounded. It woke me up at night quite a bit.

[Brad from Georgia]

....so this burglar breaks into what he assumes is a house where no one is home. He switches on his flashlight and nearly jumps out of his skin when someone says in a remonstrating voice, "Jesus is watching you!"

He whirls around and shines his light on....a parrot on a perch. The parrot mournfully says, "Jesus is watching you!"

Burglar laughs and says, "What's your name, pretty birdie?"

Parrot says, "My name is Moses."

Burglar chuckles again. "What kind of moron names a parrot Moses?"

Parrot says, "Same one who named the Rottweiler Jesus."