Dogs And Stirrups

[monkey]

Hello all, have been away for a while as sadly my own little dog soldier is very sick and have been in France with her

 

The paper is going well but slowly (have allocated myself 5 years - do you think that'll be enough?!) and am off to Italy in the new year to meet some contacts out there. My wonderful sister is currently draining Chichester records office for me!

 

I can only answer the above post from my experience of modern dog soldiers.

 

1 - If we're talking dogs of Assyrian descent, and big dogs at that - they would have been more visual that aural and virtually impossible to stamp on by people as they stood waist high! Horses rarely trample dogs if they can help it as a dog can easily take out a ligament on its way down.

 

http://www.gefsgp.net/guncel/kangal_fotosu.jpg

 

Just an example.

 

2 - As regards dogs coping with the loss of a handler, dogs are trained for combat by more than one handler and respond to a command, not a person for that very reason.

 

Thanks for your post though - get some sleep man!

 

Jim, I really can't thank you enough for your continued support and am still keen to hear from anyone with info, sources or an opinion!

 

Cheers

Anna

Edited December 1, 2005 by monkey

[Jimbow]

Cheers Anna.

 

Five years!!?? You could rob a bank and get less with good behaviour

 

Stumbled across this:

www.journalofromanarch.com - 34. THE ROMAN ARMY AS A COMMUNITY

 

There's an article: "[34] 139.. Animals and the Roman army: the evidence of animal bones" by Anthony King

 

I've not read it so I've no idea if it's about chickens, goats, horses and/or bullfinches. Anyone out there seen it?

 

There's also more on it as a PDF from the publishers: haynes1.pdf

 

Cheers,

Jim.

Edited December 2, 2005 by Jimbow

[monkey]

Just to keep you updated - I'm off to Italy in the new year to meet some people who are helping with research and look at some dead things and some pictures of dead things. Hurrah!

[Gaius Octavius]

I believe that at one point in their history the Romans used dogs to attack their enemies. Were they successful and when did it stop?

 

What took the Romans so long to start using stirrups? Seems like an easy enough idea.

[Pertinax]

I believe that at one point in their history the Romans used dogs to attack their enemies. Were they successful and when did it stop?

 

What took the Romans so long to start using stirrups? Seems like an easy enough idea.

 

As you will see , GO , my dear fellow , the first part of your post has been given to serious debate previously.

As to tack , here is a small article that you might find interesting.I suspect that a horned saddle is actually just fine-as long as you dont want to use a kontos as your primary weapon.

 

http://www.legiiavg.org.uk/articles/cavalry_tack.html

[WotWotius]

Apparently Roman Britain was one of the largest exporters of Dogs within the Empire: the province contained many specialist breeds.

 

Though I was wondering whether dogs were ever used by the indigenous Britons prior to the Roman occupation. Any idea?

[Gaius Octavius]

I'll try to clarify my question.

In the recesses of my memory, when the Romans were fighting their Italic brothers, they supposedly sent dogs charging into the enemy at the outset of a battle, to break up the enemy charge before the clash.

 

A long time ago I had a chat with a mounted policeman about stirrrups. One of the things he told me was that a crowd usually tries to unseat a mounted officer by pulling at his legs. This usually won't work. the officer has to be pushed over to the other side. From this, I think that a cavalryman could easily be unseated regardless of the number of pommels when he is in close quarters.

[Kosmo]

Dogs were used by spaniards during the conquest of America. Using them in heavy infantry battles by the romans it's doubtfull. But they still could perform some important tasks.

[caldrail]

Apparently Roman Britain was one of the largest exporters of Dogs within the Empire: the province contained many specialist breeds.

 

Though I was wondering whether dogs were ever used by the indigenous Britons prior to the Roman occupation. Any idea?

 

Yes they were. Primarily as hunting animals, guard dogs, or similar tasks. A few would have been pets but most people couldn't afford those luxuries - an animal needed a purpose to be kept. I don't see any record of dogs used as beasts of burden by ancient brits but then why would they? They had stronger and more tractable beasts available.

 

Using dogs in warfare was along the lines of setting a pack on a fleeing criminal. Dogs are chaser carnivores (besides being annoying scroungers!) and running down their prey is what they're good at - like their wolf ancestors. A dog would need training to attack head on, but needed only instinct to chase.