The history of military working dogs in the United States is not especially long, but is an interesting story of discovery nonetheless. Dogs have served alongside man in war for thousands of years. As far back as ancient Egypt, there is artwork depicting dogs being unleashed on the enemy. Greeks and Romans also have history tied to dogs in battle. Many of the duties served by modern military dogs trace their origins back to German “sanitary dogs”. These dogs were specially trained to find wounded soldiers among all the dead on the battlefield. The dogs then lead their handler, with help, to the injured person’s location, thus saving the soldiers’ life. According to the book Trident K9 Warriors: My Tale From the Training Ground to the Battlefield with Elite Navy SEAL Canines, “It’s estimated that the Germans used a total of nearly thirty thousand dogs during World War I”. Dogs were a resource that the Germans employed before the United States had any formalized service dog program. Though the training methods that were used to train those dogs are very similar to the kinds of detection, training, and signals that continue to be used between handler and dog teams for communication to this day.
Upon entry into WWI, service dog programs were nonexistent in the United States. Throughout that war, US soldiers were exposed to, and teamed with, French and British military dogs. The soldiers recognized the unique contribution dogs brought to military service, as demonstrated by Sergeant Stubby. This famous dog was a bull terrier puppy who wandered into a training camp, and was adopted by the soldiers as a mascot. Sergeant Stubby proved his worth because he could hear shells long before the men. When he would duck in warning the men knew to take cover as well. Sergeant Stubby was even captured a German spy, and is the most decorated dog of WWI, though no American military canine training program existed at that time.
In 1942, after Pearl Harbor was bombed, members of different canine organizations, including the American Kennel Club, joined efforts and together established Dogs for Defense (DFD). DFD was founded with the goal of bringing together people who were interested in supporting the usage of dogs to a larger extent in the military. Breeders, trainers, and private citizens made up the body of the organization. In July, 1942, the Secretary of War called for the training of dogs to serve many functions beyond simple sentry duty. This large job was delegated to the U.S Army Quartermaster Corps, and grew to include the training of dogs for search and rescue, scouting, messenger duty, and labor.
The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, formally began it’s training canine training program in September of 1942. In the early days, the program was unofficially known as the K9 Corps. In order to find the 125,000 dogs that they originally needed for the army, navy, marines, and coast guard, the Quartermaster Corps relied on citizens and breeders that had already volunteered their dogs to be a part of DFD programs. Of the approximately 40,000 dogs initially recruited, only about 18,000 passed the basic requirements and tests. Of those, only about 10,000 actually saw active duty. By the end of its first year of operation, there were 1,800 dog and handler teams on active duty, with another 800 handlers being trained by the end of the war.
By the time the war in Vietnam began, the variety of useful purposes dogs could serve in the military were expanding. Dogs were engaged in all kinds of duty, but many fell into three main activities during conflict: scouting, tunnel work, and sentries. Sentry dogs were taught to give warning by growling, alerting or barking. They were used to alert their handler to someone’s approach, guard arsenals, and work with the Coast Guard in detecting water activity. Tunnel dogs were used in Vietnam to detect and explore tunnels exploited by the Viet Cong. Dogs were so effective at this task , the Viet Cong were forced to use tactics to confuse the dogs. Enemy soldiers would wash with soap used by the American military and cover air vents with shirts taken from Americans soldiers, masking odors to avoid alerting the dogs’ sense of smell. Scouting dogs were trained to work in silence, but worked in a similar way to sentry dogs. They aided in the detection of snipers and ambushes.
Vietnam also saw the employment of specialized Combat Tracking Teams. On a CTT, a dog, a handler, a team leader, a tracker, and a radiotelephone operator trained together as a unit to combat tactics employed by the Viet Cong. Their two main purposes were to make contact with the enemy and to detect any recent enemy activity in an area. Unfortunately not all the canine soldier stories had a happy ending. The vast majority of dogs who served during Vietnam were not allowed to return to the United States with their human teammates. Many of the dogs were bought from the local communities, and before returning home, handlers were forced to either set their dogs loose to fend for themselves or turn them over to the South Vietnamese army. As many as five thousand dogs and ten thousand handlers served the United States from 1964 to 1975.
The most common image that is depicted of modern military working dogs is IED detection. Dogs work in Afghanistan, with a modern day soldier following behind. were credited with uncovering more than 12,500 pounds of explosives in 2010. Many soldiers’ lives have been saved by having a working dog, and estimates range from 150 to 1,800 lives per dog. Their service comes at considerable risk. According to author Maria Goodavage in her book Soldier Dogs, “Seventeen handlers have been killed in action since 2001, and 44 of the dogs have died in war zones since 2005”. Recently, a Belgian Malinois named Cairo was part of the SEAL Team Six raid that led to the take down of Osama bin Laden. Through their dedication and service, dogs have become an essential part of the military today.
Initially, the Quartermaster Corps identified 32 potential breeds and crosses they selected as potential service candidates, but by 1944, the list had dwindled to 7 breeds. These 7 breeds are still commonly seen today and include the German Shepherd dog, Doberman pinscher, Belgian sheepdog, Collie, and Siberian husky. All these breeds are designated working or sporting dogs by the American Kennel Club. Dogs in these categories are athletic, hardworking, intelligent, and hardy. Traits such as these would serve the dogs and military well during active duty. The dogs must be just as fit as their handlers in order to perform their jobs. German Shepherd dogs are preferred as the standard breed because of their unique combination of desirable traits. They are dependable, easily trained, usually moderately aggressive, and can adapt to a wide range of climatic conditions very consistently throughout the breed. For more specialized jobs, other breeds are often used. For example, retrievers are usually the preferred scent detection breed choice.
Being trained to work together, handler and dog make up an elite team. In the training process for the military, dogs are not chosen solely for their breeding or their sense of smell. They must be free of physical illnesses, and be highly motivated. Trainers for the military will often use toys to represent bombs. Dogs that are considered suitable for duty are also required to be able to attack on command. In the past, dogs have been dropped from the program due to the extreme stress that biting a human causes them. For the handler, training is even more rigorous. Before they are accepted into the program, applicants need to pass a medical screen, criminal background check, obtain a passport, and successfully complete an interview with the kennel master or unit commander in order to qualify. Once in the program, they endure 11 weeks at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas where the head of the Department of Defense’s military dog program resides. Once the handler, dog team has passed all their certifications, they can go on to active duty wherever they are stationed. Quality of work is upheld through a re-qualification test every year.
Many soldiers become attached to their dogs, as they become close partners throughout training and active duty. In the past, military dogs were put down, as they were seen as “unfit” for family life. This all changed when new laws were passed not only giving former soldiers the right to adopt their former four-legged partner before anyone else, but also allowing the dogs a second chance at a normal life. Dogs also struggle with PTSD, and they can find the adjustment back home just as hard as humans struggling in the same way. Others provide comfort to their handlers, or adopted parents, who are struggling with the aftereffects of combat, and need someone who went through exactly what they did.
Today, dogs are found all over the world doing jobs that humans can not, especially in the war effort. With their heightened senses and devotion, they fill jobs that would be hard to replace. Most dogs today are rigorously trained, smart, and considered an important part of the military working force.