National Geographic: Those Wonderful Dogs Page #5

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"Any new man that

came in got a new dog

And they taught us to

make the dog heel

sit, and down, and stay

and all the

obedience commands

"And these dogs then went through

the training with the master

And then when

that was through

certain ones that were

fit for attack training

if they had enough

aggressiveness in them

were put into attack classes

And the dogs that were better

for messenger work

were trained for that

Some dogs were trained

for pack dogs

So it was quite a course"

In Europe dogs were

used in World War I

but this was our first

use of them in combat

Some 10,000 served

in many of the bloodiest

battles across Europe

and the South Pacific

"If you needed to send a message back

to the forward outpost

we had a messenger

collar that we'd put the

message in and put it around the dog

And the dog had to learn that

when this collar was on him

he was to run as fast as he

could back to the other master"

Messenger dogs had to develop

equal loyalty to two masters

because they worked by going

from one to the other

To ignore the

noise and flames from

exploding shells

was hardest to teach

"The dogs didn't have

to reach up and tap us on the

shoulder to tell us that

there were some Germans over there

We knew by watching our dog

and being able to read the dog

this is very important

with anyone working a dog

if you can

read the dog

then you'll know what the dog

is trying to tell you"

"And I owe my life to my dog

and I'm sure

a lot of the other

handlers would say the same thing."

Joe Simpson was one of many who

brought their dogs

home after the war

Intensive demilitarization programs

retrained the animals

before they were allowed to return

to civilian life as the gentle

and loving pets they

had originally been

One phase of training similar

to that for war

dogs is used in

search and rescue work

More than 70 such groups now

exist across the United States

All volunteers

they work alongside law

enforcement teams in wilderness

rescues and the aftermath of disasters

"Go through.

No, no, no. No cheating"

It takes hundreds

of hours of training

before a team can be sent on a mission

"Go through"

Early on a dog

often needs to be coaxed

"Okay

Try that way again?

Want to go through?"

Go.

All the way

Good girl!

Good girl!"

What handlers look for

is not the breed itself

many breeds are used

but qualities like intelligence,

curiosity,

and self-confidence

The dogs must be

taught agility so

they can safely

negotiate boulders

and other obstacles

in the woods

as well as piles

of disaster rubble

"Climb.

Good girl"

Shirley Hammond is both

a handler and a trainer

"What we do is we start

the dogs out very young

if we can although

we can start older dogs

teaching them on

an agility course

"We do a lot of ladder

climbing with the dogs

And this teaches them

to use their back feet

Their back feet just normally

follow their front feet

and they do not develop

a knowledge of back feet

unless they're taught to do

something feeling

what they're putting it on

and feeling for stability with it"

"Good dog,

Tasha

Good girl!

Good dog!"

This 12-week-old puppy confronts

a ladder for the first time

In addition to the

obstacle course

they train on a rubble pile

that simulates a disaster area

The uniform and helmet

signal to Shirley's dog

Cinnamon that

now they are working

Trained not to follow her instincts

to jump off the unstable boards

Cinnamon zigzags across the rubble

in what is known as air-scenting

trying to pick up the victim's

scent on the air currents

She has been trained to cover

the entire area thoroughly

Once the victim,

in this case a volunteer

has been found

the dog's job is

to scratch and bark to alert

the handler to the

area with the most intense scent

"Put that one back there

Oh, look

What did you find, Cin?"

Finding the victim is the

dog's primary reward

It is essential that

physical contact be made

so the dog knows

she's done her job well

"Good girl,

you found him

You've got him

where you want him now

Yeah I've got

him where I want him

Did you find him, huh?"

In 1985 Shirley and

Cinnamon were one of 13 U. S

search-dog teams that made

a vital contribution in a real

life disaster the

devastating earthquake

that wracked Mexico City

The soft sub-soils underlying the city

and inadequate building codes

were blamed

when hundreds of

buildings collapsed

Thousands were injured

thousands more left homeless

As many as 10,000 died

"It was really hard

to believe because

there were buildings

standing with glass

and beautiful structures

that were just...

"...pancaked to the floor

This is a building

that was 11, 12, 14 stories

Suddenly,

it's down to 10, 20, 30 feet high

because some of them actually

sank down into their basements

They went that far down"

"Can you jump?

Up, up.

In you go"

Twelve hours

a day for a week

the teams searched through

the twisted rubble

Hundreds of people surely lay trapped

but where?

And could the dogs find

any of them in time?

"Cin, stay, stay"

"They cock their head and listen

with their ears as

if maybe they might even

be able to hear

the victims after they would bark

as if they were kind of calling

to them by their barking"

"And the other side of that coin,

of course

is when they did locate someone buried

under the rubble that

as gone, deceased

it was a very

low-key reaction

Just a little pawing

and a little whining"

Amazingly,

even at week's end

victims were found

still clinging to life

"Agua, agua"

Only hours old

when the quake hit

this baby was trapped

for nine days

Doctors cannot easily

explain her survival

Others see it simply

as a gift from God

"The Mexican people were just wonderful

to us and it was a warm, warm feeling

They were so...

"...appreciative

of our being there

And it was really a

very unique position to know

that you were doing

something that was helpful

and that your dog

was able to do it

It's a feeling that says

this is what we've done it for

All the times we've been wet,

we've been cold...

"...we've been tired,

we've been hot

This is real and it's

so exciting so exciting"

Many thousands

of years ago

some long-forgotten

caveman welcomed a wild animal

into his home to share

his fire and food

Through the centuries

the dogs that

evolved have remained

our enduring helpmates

and unfaltering friends

Our own success as a species

is due in no small

measure to the fact that a

canine partner has been by our side

Intelligent and loyal

beyond measure

dogs ask little from us in return

for their unquestioning devotion

In fact

most dogs do not see

work as work

but thrive on serving us simply

for the praise of a job well done

"Give. Good girl

Yeah, good girl"

In commenting on

this age-old partnership

one author has written:

"We give them the love we can spare

the time we can spare,

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