Famous Military Dogs - Tragically, Gander died during the Battle of Lui Mun after repeatedly fighting Japanese troops. Shortly after midnight, an enemy grenade fell near a group of wounded Canadians. Gander heroically picked up the grenade with his mouth and ran off with it, saving the lives of seven soldiers at the expense of his own.
Luca was a German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois who served in the United States Marine Corps for six years. Her skills include detecting explosives. In over 4,000 missions she has had no deaths under her watch. When Luca discovered a hidden IED, she was looking for more when one exploded.
Famous Military Dogs
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She saved several nearby Marines by taking the brunt of the impact, resulting in the amputation of her leg. A fellow Marine awarded Luca an honorary Purple Heart for her brave service. Lucca, a German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix, was deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.
Smoky – Wwii’s Miniscule Hero
She participated in more than 400 missions during her tenure, finding ammunition, explosives and insurgents at least 40 times during her six-year career. More remarkably, there has not been a single human fatality under her watch despite the dangerous conditions.
Many of the developers of this dog dummy come from the world of Hollywood special effects, working on productions such as the Star Wars or Harry Potter films. The simulated dog, whose pulse and breathing respond to the treatment, costs more than $20,000.
Lex was an eight-year-old German Shepherd who was the companion of Corporal Dustin J. Lee of the United States Marine Corps. His companion was killed in a mortar attack and Lex didn't want to leave him.
Lex had to spend twelve weeks in a rehabilitation center and was left with shrapnel permanently embedded in his spine. He was the first fully active military dog to receive early retirement to be adopted by Lee's parents.
Helping Out Our Heroes
He lived out the rest of his life in comfort while serving the heroic memory of Lee's parents and was awarded an Honorary Purple Heart for his brave work. Luca participated in more than 400 missions and not a single human fatality occurred during her watch.
She was injured in 2012 while on patrol in Afghanistan when she sniffed a 30-pound improvised explosive device (IED) and another IED detonated beneath her. Her left leg had to be amputated as a result of these injuries.
After serving as a police dog for a while, he moved with Corporal Duncan to Hollywood, where he appeared in 27 films. He even won the most votes for Best Actor at the first Academy Awards in 1929. While the military uses labs, retrievers and other breeds, including a Jack Russell or two for detection, the most popular fighting dog breeds are Belgian Malinois, Dutch
shepherd and the increasingly popular German shepherd. These dogs are prized for their intelligence, trainability, work ethic and adaptability. Military dogs don't have to be big and strong to be heroes. When an American soldier found Smokey in an abandoned foxhole in the jungle of New Guinea, she was already a full-grown Yorkshire terrier - and weighed four kilograms.
Final Thoughts
Another way these dogs can be used is to clear routes of explosives. These dogs can operate up to a mile away from the handler, almost as far as a radio signal can reach. They can swim ashore from a landing vehicle, let the driver know which paths are safe, which are not, and if there are people in the area.
The handler can instruct the dog on the radio to go left, right, forward or backward, ensuring that the area is fully searched. A dog can clear a helicopter landing zone without the handler even setting foot on shore.
Thorneburg's injuries were so severe that he was knocked unconscious, but Nemo climbed onto his body to protect him from further injury, despite being injured himself. That night, Nemo lost his eye and received a gunshot wound to his face.
By now everyone has seen the picture. A fawn dog in a tactical vest, sitting at attention, with protruding ears framing a black face. The mouth is wide open, the tongue hangs out of the side of the mouth, the dog looks happy, almost goofy.
Final Thoughts
However, Nemo was able to hold off the enemy soldiers long enough for his handler to call for help. The dog guarded its handler from opposing forces until help arrived. Both survived their injuries and Nemo was allowed to retire and was one of the first dogs allowed to return to the United States after serving overseas.
Police dogs and military working dogs put their lives on the line to perform dangerous missions, rescue people and more. These heroic dogs are the toughest and most loyal of the pack and we can't thank them enough.
They are trained in patrol, search, explosive or drug detection, tracking and are desensitized to the types of equipment they will be working around. They are familiar with shooting, getting out of helicopters, riding Zodiac boats or even skydiving.
All told, the dogs and their training cost up to $40,000 each. Including the highly specialized MPC equipment, the price can be tens of thousands of dollars higher. The handler can monitor everything from the helicopter via camera, even giving the dog verbal commands over the radio.
Kaiser Unknown–
If the dog detects the target, it can bite and hold, making the target unable to escape. In total, Stubby participated in four offensives and 17 battles on the Western Front over 18 months. Stubby overcame multiple injuries to protect his allies from enemies, locate missing soldiers, and warn his colleagues to duck for cover when he heard the whine of approaching artillery shells.
Stubby also wore a specially designed gas mask to protect him from mustard gas. Some soldiers even claimed that Stubby captured a German soldier by refusing to drop his pants until fellow soldiers found him. Perhaps one of the noblest professions a dog can have is to act as a military dog.
Throughout history, humans have trained dogs to be messengers, watchdogs, bomb trainers and scouts for warfare. Countless stories relate to the bravery and heroism of these war dogs from World War I to recent wars such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Today we celebrate veterans, both human and canine. Veterans have kept us safe for hundreds of years, and there isn't enough time in the day to say thanks for that. The staff at The Perfect Pup come from families who have served, and some of our staff have even served themselves.
Gander – The “Black Beast” Of The Canadian Army
With Veteran's Day upon us, we wanted to highlight four famous military dogs and their stories. One of Smokey's greatest achievements was made possible by her diminutive size. When military engineers had to build a critical air base for Allied warplanes, the team had to run a telegraph wire through a 70-foot-long pipe that was only 8 inches in diameter.
Soil had filled most of the pipe, which meant the engineers would be exposed to three days of excavation exposed to bombardment – except Smokey was able to fit into the partially filled pipe and complete the task in minutes.
For more than a century, dogs have provided loyal, selfless service to people around the world. While some dogs supported people on the battlefield, others played a key role as service dogs for veterans and people with disabilities.
Bottom line: Arguably the most famous German Shepherd of all time, Rin Tin Tin, also known as Rinti, was found in an abandoned kennel in Fleury, France. The corporal who found him brought him back to the US and gave him to Leo Wanner, a K-9 trainer.
Sergeant Stubby has the distinction of being the only military dog nominated for rank and promoted to Sergeant through combat. Stubby lived at Yale in 1917, and when Corporal James Conroy fell in love with the dog, he hid him in his undercoat and sent him to France!
Conroy's commanding officer found Stubby and, much to his surprise, the Boston terrier mix greeted him. Stubby was then allowed to remain as the official mascot of the 102nd Infantry Regiment. Stubby fought in seventeen battles on the Western Front over eighteen months.
Stubby served for 18 months and was at the front for 17 battles. He entered battle for the first time in February 1918, and in April of the same year he received a wound on his front leg from a hand grenade thrown by the Germans.
He quickly recovered and was sent back to the battlefield. Also, in his first year in the war, he was wounded by mustard gas. When he recovered from this injury, he returned to the war, but had a specially designed mask to protect him from any further mustard gas attacks.
Nemo was a German Shepherd who served in the Air Force in the Vietnam War. Nemo's handler was an aviator named Robert Trounburg. Nemo is credited with saving Troneburg's life when she warned him of enemy soldiers approaching them.
They fought bravely and although Nemo and his guide were shot during the battle with the guerrillas. Smokey was a Yorkshire Terrier who served during the First World War. She may have weighed just four kilograms, but she was incredibly durable, surviving 150 air raids, 12 combat missions and a typhoon during her service.
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In 1966, Kaiser and Salazar joined a search and destroy mission. As they were about to break through the thick underbrush, they were attacked by enemy automatic fire and grenades. Kaiser was immediately smitten and, sadly, became the first combat dog killed in action during the Vietnam War.
Waldo's skill in Afghanistan was sniffing out bombs. He was part of joint patrols that searched for roadside bombs. In 2011, he protected four soldiers from being hit by a grenade during a brutal firefight and was seriously injured by shrapnel.
His handler, Ryan Lee, believes he wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Waldo. His injury ended his military career, but he lived a happy life after Lee adopted him. Usain Bolt couldn't outrun these dogs and Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't intimidate them.
Once they catch up to the target, they are trained to take the biggest bite they can (ideally getting a "mouth full bite") and hold onto the target without letting it slip away. Most people find it very difficult to run away with a 70-pound dog hanging from their arm.
If the target hits the dog or tries to hurt it, it will only make the dog bite harder and thrash, making it even harder to escape. The only sure way to get the dog to release the bite is to wait for the handler to arrive and tell the dog to let go.
— America's VetDogs is a non-profit organization that trains these service dogs to help provide improved mobility and renewed independence for these people. America's VetDogs is able to train and house service dogs through generous donations.
At Bil-Jac, we are proud to help support this organization by selling our America's VetDogs treats. Purchases help America's VetDogs provide service dogs to disabled military and first responders so we can help make a difference in the lives of those who have served our country.
A member of the SEAL team that carried out the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011, the highly trained, highly trained Belgian Malinois went through SEAL training as a dog. On that fateful night, he was tasked with guarding the compound's perimeter, using his keen sense of smell (it's more than 40 times stronger than a human's) to detect any explosives and even attack militants if approached.
Source: images04.military.com
He was also outfitted with a Kevlar vest with rappel and parachute harnesses, and even a night vision camera with a 180-degree field of view. NY Post NAVYSEALS.com Dogs have provided loyal, courageous and selfless service to humans for over a century and continue to do so today.
While some are remembered and honored for their heroism on the battlefield, others play an important role as service dogs for veterans and disabled first responders. They are not only man's best friends, but also brave and selfless heroes.
Luca was a German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois cross who was in the US Marine Corps for six years. She was born in the Netherlands and was brought to Israel with the Israel Defense Forces, where she trained for six months with an American unit.
She was then flown to Arizona to train in an environment similar to the one she would one day find in Iraq. Chips was a German Shepherd/Collie/Husky mix trained as a guard dog for the US Army.
Chips was donated by his owner for war duty and sent for training in 1942. He served with the 3rd Infantry Division and although he had many heroic actions on the battlefields, his two most famous actions actually happened in one and
same day. Since the dawn of civilized humans, dogs have been with us. Through good times, bad times, and yes, even wartime. The ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks all led their faithful mutts into battle, with some choosing to adorn them with spiked metal collars and armor for armor.
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