Military Working Dogs – Part 2

If you read my post about Marine Sgt Jacob Varela and his Military Working Dog Atilla, then you are familiar with the military and their working dogs. Many people who are not affiliated with the military, simply do not understand things like how the military operates.

What does the military do with a 22-year-old, young male or female when they are done with them? Well, that is simple, they discharge them and sent them on their merry way. But what does the military do with an 8-year-old Belgian Malinois when they are done with them? They just can’t discharge them and send them on their merry way.

This is why the military treats working dogs as a tool, not personnel. This means that the military will and has in the past left working dogs in the foreign country where they last worked.

If you have watched the TV series SEAL Team on CBS, then you are familiar with how Master Chief Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) got to bring the team-working dog Cerberus (aka The Hair Missle) home with him and live out the rest of his life in luxury. Sadly that isn’t always the case, in fact, that is rarely the case.

In the TV series, Dita (the dog that plays Cerberus), suffered from PTSD in real life, from filming the TV series. The intense action scenes put her on edge, but they wanted to keep her on the series, so they wrote a storyline where she got brutally injured and “retired” her from the show. In real life, Dita was originally trained to be a narcotics detection dog (now trained as a trained in detection and tracking dog), who wasn’t exposed to all the gunfire and explosions. Dita’s sister (Pepper) who lives with her and with the same trainer, took over working with the SEAL Team on the TV show. Pepper was actually trained to be around all the explosives and gunfire.

I choose that example as Cerberus wouldn’t normally get to go live that cushy life, sadly she would likely be abandoned and shuffled from place to place until she died.

The military isn’t proud of all this either, but they are just following orders. And the good news is things are changing.

Alright, now back on track as this is where AMK9 comes into play. They are the company that trains the dogs for their military or police jobs. And now they are also helping to bring these working dogs back to the U.S. and getting them back into working dog jobs or getting them adopted into their forever homes. Recently AMK9 brought back 92 military working dogs from Afghanistan.

Here is a wonderful mini-documentary about AMK9.