The Quiet Americans - A History of Military Working Dogs Part 4

The Quiet Americans - A History of Military Working Dogs Part 4

Reprinted with permission from

Ron Aiello President The United States War Dogs Association and credit to SSgt Tracy L. English Office of History 37th Training Wing Lackland AFB, 15 December 2000 The Quiet Americans: A History of Military Working Dogs

In early 1943, James M. Austin organized the War Dog program.

The War Dog program helped relieve the huge financial burden undertaken by the Dogs for Defense network. With this new program, public donations would give dogs the honorary rank of seaman or private, while larger amounts conferred correspondingly higher grades. This popular, patriotic program helped raise much needed funds to assist the Dogs for Defense network.

By July 1943, over 11,000 dogs had been procured, with most of them coming from the Dogs for Defense. The first War Dog reception and training center was established at Front Royal, Virginia in August of 1942. The completion of this center allowed for the training of 200 men and 500 dogs. But the enormous influx of dogs pushed these numbers up to 400 men and 900 dogs by June of 1943. Other reception and training centers included Fort Robinson, Camp Rimini, San Carlos, Beltsville and Cat Island.

War Dog Training. The training of the dogs was divided into eight distinct areas:

Sentry Dogs:   These dogs were trained to assist in guard duty at arsenals, ammunition dumps, ration depots, and water works. In all instances the  dogs were worked on leashes and were used primarily to warn the sentry of the presence of trespassers.

Attack Dogs:  Early in the canine program these dogs were limited in production, as time did not permit their full training. But the Coast Guard was of belief that these dogs would be more valuable in beach patrols or in any situation where trespassers might be at a distance from the sentry and that these dogs would be good in the apprehension of ‘undesirable persons.’

Tactical Dogs:  Initially, the training of tactical dogs was done on experimental bases.Training involved dogs used in combat situations, something the Army was still not sure of. It was a common belief that these dogs could not be used in tropical areas due to the diseases and parasites that existed there. There was enough of a demand for these dogs to conduct training on Cat Island, 100 miles southeast of Nassau Island in the Bahamas. Experimentation with these dogs included use of camouflage and gas masks for them.

Most of the dogs trained were at or below 15 inches in height and weighing 15 pounds or less.

A prime factor with the training of these dogs was their ability to execute their duties under battle conditions. Typically, two master-trainers were used in the training of these dogs, as the dogs were motivated by their anxiety to please the men by running between two points were the men were located.

Casualty Dogs:  

Sledge Dogs: 

regions inaccessible by normal means.

Pack Dogs:

These dogs were trained to transport loads of up to 40 pounds. They would be able to work with field units in carrying small machine guns, ammunition and food. Only 92 of these types were ever trained and none were ever used as no requisitions for this type of dog had ever been received.

http://www.uswardogs.org/PDF/History-of-MWD.pdf