15/07/2025
A lovely story of how dogs support their owners, shared today about Gunner a dog that was bought during the war and was able to detect the sound of German planes before the early warning sirens went off.
We have published a book by Colin Whittemore that is all about the amazing capacity for dogs to teach and help their owners. Taught by Dogs is a celebration of our canine companions in work and family life. Brought up on a farm, Colin's life was interwoven with dogs from the start.
He writes of the welsh sheepdogs his father used on his dairy farm to bring in the cattle twice daily, but also of the farm dogs taken to the pub to lie silently under a table.
He observes that these working dogs never played, chased a ball or fetched sticks: farm dogs took their delight in working, whether rounding up livestock, ratting or guarding.
But throughout his life his mother also had 'house dogs', adored pets which she trusted implicitly to accompany children as they roamed freely all day long in the countryside, relied on to stop youngsters from getting in dangerous situations or to run for help.
Colin writes with first-hand experience of the 'gatherings' when different hill farmers let their dogs use their own initiative out of sight, returning lost sheep from miles away, working as a team.
He writes of settling in new puppies, choosing dogs, dogs choosing their 'masters', gun dogs, terriers, collies and his beloved teckels, the companions of much of his life and his old age.
He also writes movingly about the family dogs in his life who have bonded humans together, seen them through hardships, shown wisdom often lacking in their owners.
https://merlinunwin.co.uk/products/what-our-dogs-teach-us
This dog's name was Gunner. My uncle brought him back from WW2. He was raised and slept under my uncle's anti- aircraft gun. The gun crew shared their
rations to feed him. By the time he was 18 months old, my uncle said he would stand up and look at the sky. If he laid back down they knew all was ok. If he growled
and put his hackles up they got at the ready. He knew the sound of the German aircraft and my uncle said he
never got it wrong. He said Gunner was better than any early warning system. I'm probably the only one left in the family that knows that story now, so I thought I'd tell it before it's lost forever, like many stories must be from that time. Thanks for reading it.
