Reply To: Marine War Dog team

[L.T. Russell]

Howdy Stuart!  I found this on WE ARE THE MIGHTY;

“Unlike the dog training programs of the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard, the Marine Corps dogs were trained exclusively for combat roles. Being a strictly combat organization, the Corps had no interest in training dogs unless they contributed directly to killing the enemy or saving Marines. This concept split the training program into scout dogs and messenger dogs. These specialized dogs would prove invaluable against the Japanese in the Pacific.”

Sounds like “attack dog” training musta been done later.  I’ve read where K9s were excellent at tunnel work during the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese were terrified of the big German Shepherds….but the military found the dogs too expensive, the tropical weather was tough on the Shepherds and there were issues with bringing the dogs back to the States.  All the military K9s I worked with at the border were “attack” trained, while our Customs K9s were all specialized “detection” dogs….