The dog show naturally attracts one’s attention to dogs, and reminds me of the locally celebrated police dog “Pete,” who once figured largely in the annals of the Church street police station.
“Pete” was regularly enrolled in the Metropolitan Police force for six years, and was the only policeman who ever served without receivin’ any salary.
“Pete” introduced himself to the police force and got appointed without any “influence.” One Summer’s afternoon he walked into the Church street station house and stretched himself out on the floor in front of the desk. He ought to have been driven away, of course, but it was warm and the policeman then in the buildin’ were lazy, and the dog was both stubborn and sleepy; so he remained. After sleepin’ there a few hours he woke up and walked into the patrol room, where the policeman assemble when on what is called “house duty.” Here he stretched himself once more on the floor and fell asleep again.
He slept till about midnight, and then awoke refreshed, and for good. At midnight the fourth section of the second platoon of police was rung up and, obedient to the summons, the policemen marched into the main room and ranged ‘emselves in line. The dog looked up and then marched himself into the main room and arranged himself in line along with the rest. This tickled the men and amused the sergeant in charge at the desk, who, after callin’ the roll, named the dog “Pete” and enrolled him formally among the police attached to the precinct. While gettin’ named and enrolled “Pete” stood perfectly still and dignified, and seemed to understand perfectly what was goin’ on.
As the men went out to duty the sergeant cried, “Go with ‘em, Pete,” and “Pete” thereupon followed the men out solemnly. His outside duties that night were of a miscellaneous character, consistin’ principally in goin’ from one patrolman to another throughout the precinct, acknowledgin’ the presence of each officer he met by a bark of recognition.
When mornin’ came the men on night duty returned to the station house and “Pete” returned with ‘em and went to sleep, stretched out on the floor of the station house once more.
All this passed as a good joke–a little episode–and everybody took it for granted that havin’ had his little “lark” the dog would go away–but he didn’t. He stayed the next day, and the next, and for six years after.
Sometimes he would go out with the men in the afternoon, but as a general thing he got in his police work between midnight and mornin’. When in the station house he was always sleepin’ or eatin’. But once outside he never ate nor slept, but was wide awake and active, as a policeman ought to be. He didn’t seem to agree with Gilbert, who says:
“Taking one consideration with another,
the life of a policeman is not a happy one.”
for whenever he was actin’ policemen “Pete” seemed perfectly content–the very incarnation of happiness.
He caught the policeman’s ways, too, pretty well, for he soon got into the habit of makin’ a good deal of pretty servant girls and janitors’ daughters, and all that. And then he walked a good deal, like the policemen, strollin’ leisurely yet rather majestically, along. He never jumped–that wasn’t proper; he never ran–that was decidedly improper; he never played nor romped–that wasn’t dignified, but he just sauntered along, keepin’ his weather eye open.
And on three different occasions “Pete,” the dog policeman, did the State service and vindicated his right to his title and to his pay, if he could have got it.
Once “Pete,” durin’ the small hours of the night, was, as usual, goin’ from patrolman to patrolman through the precinct when, in front of a bonded warehouse on Greenwich street, he saw three men standin’. The three men didn’t know anythin’ about “Pete” and took no notice of him, but “Pete” took notice of the three men and didn’t like their looks. With more than average human sagacity “Pete” passed on a little and then turned back. By this time the three men had got into the bonded warehouse and had disappeared, whereupon “Pete” quietly lay down in front of the door and waited.
“All things come to him who waits”–even a policeman. And pretty soon a policeman by the name of Dougherty came along. Seein’ him, “Pete” growled and pawed at the door of the warehouse.
Dougherty took no special notice of this, but patted the dog on the head, expectin’ to have the dog follow him. But “Pete” never moved, but only growled more warnin’ly and pawed still more at the door of the warehouse, as if two direct the patrolman’s attention to it.
Dougherty took the hint, and steppin’ up to the door, to the great delight of the dog, examined it and found it had been tampered with. He rapped for assistance, the dog now barked furiously, two other policemen hurried to the spot, the bonded warehouse was searched and the three burglars were found secreted in it.
Dougherty got the credit for their arrest and really deserved some of it, but the main praise was due to “Pete.”
“Pete” had a very quick eye and a very peculiar bark, short, sharp and decisive, which was known to every policeman in that precinct.
Once he was patrollin’ Broadway on a clear, cold Winter’s night when he noticed that a pane of glass had been broken in the basement of a buildin’ near Cedar street. An ordinary policeman probably wouldn’t have seen this, but the dog at once stopped and barked like fury. Two Patrolmen, recognizin’ his bark, hurried to the spot and were conducted by “Pete” towards the broken pane. One of the patrolmen, named Donnelly, rushed in and found that there had been a robbery effected, though the thieves this time had escaped.
On a third occasion “Pete’s” nose served the city in good stead. Passin’ along Fulton Street one night he smelled smoke. He sniffed and sniffed and then barked furiously. Several patrolmen rushed to the spot, smelt the smoke, gave the alarm and thereby saved what might have proved a disastrous conflagration.
Altogether the record of “Pete” the dog policeman is highly credible to dogs.
[Editor’s notes: The source of the above column was a newspaper item that had appeared in the New York Sun three years earlier, on May 2, 1881, “How Pete Came on the Force.” This article contained all the facts listed above, but no more. The first trained police dogs appeared in 1907.
The “dog show” alluded to in the first paragraph above refers to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which started in 1877–about the time that “Pete” first appeared. In its early years, it was known as simply, The New York Dog Show; but its home has been Madison Square Garden since the early 1880s.]
