ZABUL PROVINCE, Afghanistan – They are man’s best friend, but to a soldier trying to survive in a war zone, they are so much more than that. They are guardian angels. Military working dogs have been saving U.S. service members’ lives for more than 60 years. In Afghanistan where the U.S. military serves side by side with the armed forces of other nations, these coalition partners are witnessing firsthand the positive effects of deploying K9 units in combat … and everybody wants them.
“Bottom line, those dogs save a lot of lives,” said Sgt. 1st Class Bladimiro Fernandez from Jacksonville, Fla., the Combined Team Zabul provost marshal non-commissioned officer in charge. “Every time a dog goes out, lives are saved.”
“Every time they find an (improvised explosive device), it’s a little victory for us,” said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Richard Duvall from Tulsa, Okla., the CTZ kennel master. “That means someone’s brother, dad or mom gets to go home.”
The military working dog program came into the spotlight after a dog was used during the operation that took down Osama bin Laden. Interest peaked around the world, and now the U.S. is working with Romanian soldiers to train MWD teams for service in combat, something the Romanian army has never done.
“The war brought a lot of things to us,” said Fernandez. “We’re able to partner up with another country for the same cause and support each other, and helping them achieve something they’ve never done before with their military … It’s awesome.”
Fernandez has full confidence in the new program and its success.
“Duvall is an outstanding kennel master,” he said. “The way he runs the program is excellent.”
Duvall manages the dog teams, and is in charge of training overall, making sure the dogs have everything they need to do the mission. He also takes care of the handlers, making sure they have the best training possible before they go outside the wire.
For the past few weeks Duvall has been working with two Romanian MWD teams.
“The issue overall is the fact that the dogs are very low drive,” said Duvall. “Military working dogs, in order to be able to work in this environment and be productive, have to have a very high drive. They can go longer. They can search longer and harder, and keep on working. We’ve had a military working dog program for over 60 years, so we’ve had the same breeders and trainers for years. What we’re seeing is that the Romanians haven’t had the luxury of having years and years of breed lines and dog centers that do nothing but produce dogs. They have to establish everything from scratch, and they’re getting a lower quality of dog, so it’s going to be difficult trying to find the right dogs to suit the program.”
The fledgling program has had its problems but Duvall remains optimistic about the future of the MWD program.
“They’ve made a lot of progress,” he said. “When they first came here, the dogs could only respond on a couple of different odors. Now they’re able to locate about nine. I’m very confident that within the next 10 years or so, they are going to have a very productive program.”
Sgt. Maj. Nicolae Constantin, one of the Romanian dog handlers, does not think his dog, Frolo, is trained. He is satisfied with the progress Frolo is making, but hopes that he will progress more.
“They are learning new smells that we don’t have in Romania,” Constantin said. “Frolo is trained in everything except culvert searches and buried explosives. He isn’t very excited to go out, but he is progressing.”
For Master Sgt. Daniel Morlova, the other Romanian dog handler, training his dog, Puf, is a little more complicated.
“He has his moments,” Morlova said. “But he gets bored, and is easily distracted. We just hope he will be okay, and he will get trained.”
Several months ago, the Romanians sent two dogs over for training. Duvall worked tirelessly with them, but they just didn’t make the cut, and they were sent home. This worries Constantin and Morlova, who are hoping to be the first Romanian MWD teams to certify and go outside the wire.
“I tell them not to get down,” said Duvall. “In the United States, when we buy our dogs, we’ll buy 200 at a time, and maybe only 120 or 150 of them make the cut. They’ve only brought four dogs into the country, so even if only one of them makes it, that’s really a success considering they have no foundation for building their program. So I try to tell them not to take it to heart. It takes a long time to build. We didn’t build it overnight either.”
No matter what happens with Frolo and Puf, Duvall knows that every success, along with every frustration, means progress.
“You start building, but you’ve got to lay the foundation somewhere,” he said. “That’s pretty much what we’re doing here. We’re laying the foundation.”
Constantin and Morlova will learn something here. They’ll take that home and teach other dogs and other dog handlers, and start the program rolling so future teams are even more prepared when they come out for training, and it will grow from there.
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 09.07.2011 11:18 |
| Story ID: | 76579 |
| Location: | QALAT, AF |
| Web Views: | 321 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Romanian Military Working Dogs, by SSG Rebecca Petrie, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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