Monday, April 7, 2014

German Shepherds in War

This is my now 10 month old German Shepherd. During World War I and World War II, dogs began to have a significant role in various activities during the war. The German Shepherd is the most popular dog to be used in military tactics due to its natural intelligence, courage, and obedience. Dogs were used to detect mines, pick up scents, patrol areas, and carry messages. Dogs were taught to alert soldiers of strangers or enemies in the area by barking loud and growling.  They were also taught to find snipers, and discover booby traps and trip wires. The US did not have a training center for military dogs until 1942 when Dogs for Defense was created. At first only a few branches of the military used trained dogs but now every branch of the military uses the animals in various forms. During World War I alone it is estimated the Germans used close to 30,000 dogs consisting of mostly Shepherds and Dobermans. Today Shepherds are most commonly used in police forces to sniff out drugs and pick up scents of criminals hiding.

http://www.pet360.com/dog/breeds/german-shepherds-served-in-key-roles-during-world-war-ii/UpLNbuBmj0GpaAEZ7k8W_g

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/history-of-war-dogs-_n_3155904.html

3 comments:

  1. German Shepherds are sure tough and smart dogs. They are useful for anything like you say such as police forces and wars.

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  2. Wow that's some cool knowledge behind the German Shepherd. Never really knew any of that thank you for sharing.

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  3. I like this one because, when I was in Iraq, German Shepherds are still used today for sniffing out IED's and also are great to have on missions because they can sense the enemy way before us humans can, they sometimes gave away our positions, but we would muzzle them most the time before putting them to work so that wouldn't happen often. They were all fitted with body armor and special goggles to keep the sand out of their eyes! LOL...they spend so much to train them, so they have to try to keep them alive just like the rest of the soldiers. Even if one were to be wounded, you could actually call in a medevac for the dogs! Crazy huh?! ok that's comment # 2 1 more to go!!!

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