Why do firestations use dalmatians as a mascot?

Answer 1

The Dalmatian dog breed is very intelligent, very athletic, very loyal and very adaptable to their surroundings.

They were bred in the Empire of Dalmatia, which is now part of modern-day Croatia, as military dogs, trained to protect the borders of the Empire alongside their military handlers.

The Dalmatian was introduced to England in 1862. The British Government decided to use the Dalmatian dogs at first as a guard dog, to protect fire-houses (fire stations) from thieves and sabotage. As well as to sit with the horses who drew the fire engines as the firefighters fought a fire, because they were very strong and expensive horses, hence targets for horse-thieves. Try to steal a fire-horse being guarded by a Dalmatian back in those days, then the lovable, loyal, cute dog would attack and probably kill you.

As the British began to quickly realise the incredible intelligence of the Dalmatian dog, they were trained for other duties too.

The Dalmatians were trained to run ahead of the horse-drawn fire engines and stand in the middle of crossroads to halt the traffic as the fire engines approached.

This lead to the real reason the Dalmatian became a mascot for firefighters in England and America.

Later however, the invention of modern engines, improved sirens and changing public morals made the Dalmatian's traffic-stopping abilities and aggressive guarding obsolete.

So, nowadays the Dalmatian is trained as a rescue dog. Trained to use their athleticness, intelligence, adaptability and sense of smell to detect humans trapped in buildings and natural disasters. The largest recorded use of the Dalmatian as a rescue dog is during the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks on America.