In the 1800s, fire engines were horse-driven carriages. Unfortunately, horses and other equipment found in a fire station were prime targets for thieves at that time, especially in some of the poorer urban areas (where many fires occurred). Some firefighters tried to combat thievery by sleeping alongside their steeds, but since they were often exhausted from fighting blazes, that idea didn’t always work. Eventually, the solution became clear: a watchdog.
And not just any watchdog. You see, horses are not solitary animals. They prefer the companionship of some other animal; another horse, a dog, a goat or even a chicken. Left alone too long, they grow restless and neurotic. Dalmatians, it was discovered, formed an amazingly close bond with horses once they were introduced. They also became quite protective and possessive of their equine friends, so it became impossible for anyone to try to spirit away a horse under cover of the night. In fact, the spotted pooches were also used by stagecoach drivers for the same purpose, and became colloquially known as “coach dogs.”
This tidbit was pulled from Kara Kovalchik’s “Ten Wild Fire Facts.”
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This is really fascinating, and rather sweet as well. It warms my heart to think of animals of different species being so attached to one another. It also makes me think of the Disney movie “101 Dalmatians,” in which there’s a role reversal in that a horse, among other animals, does what it can to save the dalmatian family.
posted by Anne on 4-29-2008 at 7:57 pm
I always assumed that the firefighters use the dog to find the fire hydrant.
posted by Miss Cellania on 4-30-2008 at 12:15 am
I had heard (from the movie _State and Main_) that the dalmatian was the symbol of fire stations because the first organized fire brigade was on the border of Dalmatia and Sardinia, meaning either it or the sardine would have to be the symbol. That one never seemed to be likely.
posted by Joshua on 4-30-2008 at 10:31 am
I had always heard that a significant number of Dalmatians tend to be deaf. Therefore, the clanging bells of the fire engines didn’t frighten or disturb them (unlike other dogs).
posted by BabkaGal on 4-30-2008 at 3:17 pm
Actually, that early fire equipment was horse-drawn, not horse driven. Yes, there is a difference.
posted by BassMan on 5-1-2008 at 1:58 pm
I heard that sentence from the same movie, but Sardinia is an isle, and has no border in common with dalmatia, that’s on the other side of the mediterranean see, with the italy between them. It’s like to say ‘the border of Haway and Florida’… it’s a nonsense !
posted by Alex on 2-24-2009 at 7:18 am