Greetings everyone,

I met a retired MWD handler today here in Korea. He told me that one of his dogs in Vietnam had over 30 kills! I didn't know that the dogs themselves were credited with kills. How would this affect the dog? Did it make them "crazy" after a kill? Another handler told me that they had a dog here in Korea that had over 20 bites in a riot a few years ago and the dog was never the same after that. I am curious to see if anyone out there has any knowledge on the subject or stories.

I personally find this subject to be in very poor taste.


High stress extreme situations can and will affect some dogs in a negative way.

Do we really need to get into how many kills MWDs have racked up and how it affected the dogs?


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v58/Honushi/smilies/neutral.gif

I think the guy was asking does engagement and subsequent
behavior change happen often? Had he put it that way, would you have growled? I think he'd find folks here who could say,
if it were allowed to be discussed. How many kills is in poor taste, but how many before it takes armour to be safe is a valid question.
I'd enjoy reading a disussion of that, and someone considering bitework for their pet might think twice about
it...and it's worth considering twice, at least, ain't it?

I spent nearly 23 years in the MWD Program that encompassed the entire Viet Nam war. I think it's a load of crap. While dogs did some amazing things over there and were rightfully credited with many successes, I don't believe that happened. I've also seen a number of dogs that had multiple bites, when the training was kept up as it was supposed to be, there was negligent affect on the dog's behavior. A point to consider, in Korea and in Viet Nam, while the later dogs were trained as patrol dogs, handlers minimized the control and reverted, in many cases, back to the less controlled sentry dog. The dog school at Lackland, probably at Kadena, but I'm not certain of that, was still training a few Sentry dogs into the early 70's, all of them scheduled for overseas shipment.

DFrost

Mr Van Camp,

While not disagreeing with you about perhaps being in bad taste, it's none-the-less a matter close to me. I think the guy was given some bum information relative the use of dogs over there and I wanted to add a comment.

DFrost

I appologize for any question or subject that is in bad taste, but the information that I received generated some questions. I was under the impression, and still believe, that this is a good place to bring up a subject in which I have very little knowledge on and others in the forum could comment on. The fact that (according to one handler I talked to) MWD's were used to hunt down and take out people is a very touchy subject. It is horrible to imagine, but it's part of war and history (again, according to one man ). I agree, it is not a pleasant thing to hear about these kinds of acts, but I was more curious as to how the dogs were affected by this line of work, not looking for actual stories of how it happened. I hope my original question didn't come across like this. I don't know why the guy would lie to me, so I figured I would bring it up and ask the question on this forum. Feel free to erase the post if you feel it is in bad taste. I appologize. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> DFrost, if you don't mind I will PM you, since you have personal experience with MWDs in wartime like Vietnam.

No problem at all.

DFrost

Curtis,
You're being handed a load of BS there. Like David said, the scout dog/ handler team may have recieved credit for for the body count on patrols, but the dog wasn't engaging the enemy. Sorry, never happened, send the BS'er back to the VFW and let him peddle his stories there. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />
Anybody with 30 days of combat experience is gonna call him on that story, for sure.

Thank you Will and David. I guess this individual is just telling stories. I am glad that I brought it up (Sorry Mr. Van Camp). I will have to filter some of the stories and stuff I receive from individuals.

The Sentry Dog was bascially a really pissed off dog that would bite and scout. Little effort was given to control. They were used primarily on perimeter and within special weapon storage areas. The military started phasing out the Sentry Dog in the late 60's, although they still trained a few through the very early 70's. It's successor, the Patrol Dog was a bit more versitile. The Patrol Dog was trained with more control, more off-leash work, and the added features of building search and tracking. It also started to find it's way into the law enforcement field where it's predecessor was strictly relagated to security. Don't confuse the Sentry with the Scout Dog. Completely different animals and functions. I started out as a Sentry Dog handler, attending my first dog school at Hindenburg Kasern in Germany. They were just really pissed off dogs that could scout a gnat fart at 100 meters.

DFrost