
March 13th recognizes National K9 Veterans Day and the dedicated K9 units who’ve served since World War II.
- During the first world war, the United States took notice of the European use of canines as sentries, message carriers, and several other functions.
- A private citizen, Mrs. Alene Erlanger initiated a program called Dogs for Defense. Along with the American Kennel Club and a handful of breeders, the group aimed to train the dogs for military use.
- By November of 1942, the military prepared the first Dogs for Defense for duty in North Africa. While at first, they were gun shy, they proved to be well trained.
- As the war progressed, Dogs for Defense was unable to keep up with the demand, and the Remount Branch, Service Installations Divisions took over the training of the dogs.
- The earliest recorded use of dogs in times of war dates back to around 600 BC. War dogs were used extensively by the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians.
- When the military began training dogs during WWII, they used more than 30 different breeds. However, over the years the list of acceptable breeds has been reduced to just a handful – the German Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, and Retrievers. The German Shepherd is preferred because of specific and consistent traits that includes moderately aggressive behavior, easy to train, dependable, predictable, intelligent and adaptable to most climates.
- There are over 2,700 active military service dogs and it is estimated that each dog saves 150-200 human lives over the course of their service.
- Navy Seal dogs are trained to parachute and rappel from helicopters and airplanes, ready for action the moment their paws hit the ground.
- The average career span for a military working dog is 8-9 years, depending on health, and more than 90% of retired dogs are adopted by a former handler.
- In the spirit of tradition, to make sure handlers don’t mistreat their dogs, each canine holds the rank of noncommissioned officer – one rank higher than the handler.
- the dogs of war span centuries and include such heroes as Sgt. Stubby, the original war dog, Chips, the most decorated dog in World War II and Lex, who retired with his fallen owners family and Cairo, the Navy SEAL working dog on the bin Laden raid.
- One of the most famous military working dogs is Layka, a German Shepherd who protected her handler from an explosion and lost a leg but survived.
- Another well-known military dog was Sergeant Stubby, a Boston Bull Terrier who served in World War I. Sgt. Stubby single-handedly captured a German soldier and was the only dog to be promoted to Sergeant.
- Sergeant Stubby, was the most decorated military dog of World War I
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