SEAL Dogs
I think I speak for most Americans when I say I was shocked to learn that justice had been finally served with the recent death of Osama Bin Laden after almost a full decade of pursuing the most wanted terrorist in the world. The news stories were pouring through the media with the different accounts of the sorted details this covert SEAL operation undertook. One sorted detail that never made the front page in the barrage of fan fair had to do with one particular team member of the Navy SEALs, a trained military dog.
Shrouded in secrecy are the details of this 4 legged war hero. Was it male or female? Was it a common military breed like a German Shepherd or a Belgian Malinois? Did it have a name? These questions will go unanswered for now and frankly, we may never know. What we do know is that military trained dogs are fast becoming a very sought after, low tech additions to the US military arsenal saving millions of dollars in the process by not needing to develop anything other than a strong bond and a stronger training regiment.
The Big Bang Theory
Currently there are over 600 military working dogs deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. These furry freedom fighters are there with a specific function; to detect explosives. With 2/3rds of all reported casualties being blamed on disturbed explosive devices, it’s easy to see why the canine, with it’s keen sense of smell, is a necessity in preserving the lives of American soldiers. Recent reports show trained military working dogs “sweeping” road ways hundreds of yards ahead of platoons in order to detect explosive devices set as traps. 
Be it military or police dog training, one could not argue the effectiveness of this bomb detection technology on 4 legs. Humans have yet to create a machine as accurate and as precise as the nose of our life long, tail-wagging friends. When pondered, it’s really quite awe inspiring. Take a domesticated animal who may have been chasing squirrels yesterday, put of tactical vest on them, spend a couple months training and viola, you have a trusted and respected member of the most powerful military in the world. Obviously, that’s an over-simplified version, but cats are domesticated animals too and as one clever blog writer put it, “There’s no real ‘ow’ in meow.”
Adopt Retired Military Dogs
With military dogs not eligible for retirement after 20 years of service, like their human counterpart, one may ask what happens to them when their dog training and tours of duty are over and the physical and mental tolls have been taken on their bodies. Well…anyone can adopt military working dogs. These are the dogs that either didn’t make the cut to be used in the field or are older dogs with health problems that need a home to be cared for. Thankfully, at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX, the adoption waiting list is 12 to 18 months long to adopt a military service dog so these heroes will all find homes.
Military dog training can be described as pure amazement when one considers the importance of the jobs they take on day in and day out in war ravaged regions of the world, especially if you consider the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on other tactical weapons, machinery and research. We should maybe each take a moment to pet our faithful family pet a couple more times tonight knowing that they had the potential to go from a butt sniffer to a bomb sniffer!
