Dogs in U.S. Army

Army Colonel David Rolfe thought to use dogs for military purpose. Rolfe and his staff, as director of the Defense Department's Military Working Dog Program, are responsible for the health and welfare of some of the most unheralded members of the fighting force: its estimated 2,300 working dogs.

These dogs, are deployed worldwide to support the war on terror  along with their handlers from every military service, helping to safeguard military bases and activities and to detect bombs and other explosives before they inflict harm.

Why Use Working Dogs?

Rolfe explained, with an acute sense of smell  and five to ten times stronger than a human' working dogs can detect minute traces of explosives or drugs and alert the handlers of their presence.

Many people think that the dog-handler profession is  an art form as there are so many nuances that the human must be able to interpret. Not just anyone can step in and perform the job, the missions require the kind of autonomy that not everyone is mature enough to handle and the hours are long too .

The dogs have the ability to inflict fear in an aggressor in a way a human ,even if armed , often can't , Staff Sgt. Andrew Mier , military working dog trainer  said "People see a dog and don't want to mess with it" ."A dog creates a strong psychological deterrent."

BREEDS OF WORKING DOGS

Majority of U.S. military working dogs are German, Belgian Malinois and Dutch shepherds and these breeds are  very smart, very aggressive,  very athletic and very  loyal .

WORKING DOGS HISTORY

The U.S. military has used working dogs since the Revolutionary War, initially as cover animals, and later, for more advanced uses, such as killing rats in the trenches.

TRAINING PROGRAM

The 120-day program teaches the dogs basic obedience as well as more advanced skills, such as how to sniff for specific substances and how to attack. Rolfe said the initial training program, conducted by the 341st Training Squadron team, is based on "positive rewards" -- generally a rubber toy or ball rather than food. They learned long ago that food works only for some time not so long. What the dog really wants us to do is play with it.

Members of the 37th Security Forces teach the dogs and their trainers to work as a team, after the dogs receive their initial training. Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Luloffs, an instructor at the school,said that “one of the biggest challenges is getting a handler to recognize what a dog is showing him".