Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Meadows | Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis Hazelton (right), a military working dog handler from...... read more read more
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By Staff Sgt. Matt Meadows
4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq – Many Soldiers work outside of their military occupational specialties when they deploy to Iraq; but for some who do not, it's a dog's life – or something very close to it.
Although a dog's life is associated with an easy and lazy existence, that's not the life of a military working dog or the military professionals who handle them. They earn their money each and every day.
"We give them as much down time over here as we possibly can, but still, training has to be conducted because it's a diminishing skill," explained Staff Sgt. Robert Moore, a specialized search dog handler and kennel master from Charleston, W.Va. "We try to put them on odors every day so that we can keep them in tune to what they are doing."
Deployed in support of Multi-National Division – Baghdad's 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division units at Forward Operating Bases Loyalty and Rustamiyah, Moore said MWDs and their handlers' schedules vary according to requests from various maneuver units they support. Therefore, keeping the dogs on a regular schedule doesn't always work out, but he at least tries to feed his dog, Wisky, about the same times every day: once in the morning and once in the evening.
"Everything revolves around what missions need to be done," commented Moore, who is assigned to 217th Military Police Detachment at Fort Lee, Va., and attached to Multi-National Division – Baghdad's 4th Infantry Division Provost Marshal Office while deployed to Baghdad. "We are Soldiers just like everybody else. We have to mold [our schedules] around missions the way that everybody else does."
Moore has been in the Army for 19 years and has been a SSD handler since 1997. Although he just deployed, Oct. 27, he has previously deployed 10 times and has served in Surinam, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Kosovo, Bosnia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Iraq. He has worked with his canine partner, Wisky, a 2-year-old Weimaraner, since March 2008, when he went to specialized search dog handler school at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
Most of the MWDs here are used for explosives detection, explained Moore, but there are four main areas for which the military uses dogs: patrol narcotics detection dogs, patrol explosive detection dogs, specialized search dogs and combat tracker dogs.
MWDs might as well wear stripes too because their handlers put many of the same expectations on them as they do Soldiers. They even fall into formation with them.
"We treat them just like Soldiers. They get a place in the line just like everybody else," explained Moore. "We give them their rank through the respect that we show them. Through the stuff that they do, we give them the respect of the next rank higher."
Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis Hazelton, a MWD handler from Sachse, Texas, in the fifth month of his second deployment to Iraq, is assigned to the 37th Security Forces Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. He said the dogs all have different personalities, and he agrees with Moore about the MWDs being just like Soldiers.
Hazelton compared MWDs to privates, who are brand new to the Army. They must be taught everything about their jobs, beginning with the most basic principles, because they don't know anything, he said, adding that MWDs need constant training to keep them focused on performing their missions. Hazelton said handlers training a MWD is never complete and no day as a handler is ever the same.
"There is always something different you can do. You are never actually done training your dog because there is always more stuff you can do or stuff you can fine tune," explained Hazelton, whose MWD is a 10-year-old German Shepherd patrol explosive dog named Sinda. "The effort you put into your dog shows in the long run."
Just as all MWDs have different personalities, their relationships with their handlers take on various forms. Hazelton said Sinda acts like a 3-year-old child half of the time. He described their relationship as a partnership.
"Like a regular cop would have a partner," he explained, "he's like my partner on the road."
However, Spc. Jacob Evans said he and his German Shorthair Pointer named Muddy share a father-son type of relationship. Evans is not a military policeman but is a combat engineer trained as a MWD handler. He is from Dover, Tenn., and is attached to 4th Inf. Div. from 67th Engineer Canine Detachment at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Muddy is trained in explosives detection dog.
Moore also has a special bond with his MWD. Wisky "can be a knucklehead at times, but he is a driven dog," he said. "When he is on mission, he is on mission. His little eccentricities, like everybody else has, is hard to describe."
Handlers are responsible for feeding, medications and everything their dogs need, so forming a bond when one is with their dog every day automatically happens, he said.
"He relies on you for everything that he needs, where you rely on him for everything he does – for finding things that may harm other Soldiers," expressed Moore. "You talk to them just like anybody else. It's just like if you're with somebody every day, like your squad mates or people who are in your team that you've worked with for a whole year – that bond comes together. Yes, it's a very strong bond."
The bonds and realistic daily training transfer to mission success. A handler really has to know his MWD's habits and movements when performing their jobs, said Moore.
"You have got to know any little eccentricities that he has because you have to know his change in behavior, you have to know his personality," explained Moore. "Of course, a dog can't talk, so you need to know if that dog is doing something he is supposed to do so that you detect if he is 'on something' or not. Is he just searching? Is he on something?"
Evans is nearing the end of his deployment and said he and Muddy have conducted at least 70 missions. A successful mission does not necessary equate to finding caches of explosives.
"You don't always find something with your dog when you go out. Nine times out of 10, you actually do not find something," explained Evans. "But as long as nobody gets hurt, that is a success to me."
Not all MWDs are aggressive, and they go through aggression training, said Evans, adding that he didn't think many people realized that. In fact, this allows MWD teams to enter schools.
MWDs are a great asset to coalition forces because of their detection capabilities. Wisky and other MWDs simply are able to find things humans cannot, and that still excites Moore and keeps him going.
"It is just an added advantage that we have for our forces over here using the dogs because of what the dogs can do. The things that these dogs can do are just amazing," exclaimed Moore. "It is an interesting job.
"I would not be in the Army still if I wasn't a dog handler. The job is awesome. You can't beat it."
| Date Taken: | 11.12.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2008 16:37 |
| Story ID: | 26255 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 1,203 |
| Downloads: | 227 |
This work, Day in the life of a military working dog handler, by SFC Matthew Meadows, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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