War Dogs Research Paper

Dogs have been an important part of fighting wars all throughout history. Their ability to detect enemies invading, smell out hazards such as bombs and landmines, and their loyalty to protect has made them a key element in fighting wars. According to the author Jane Desmond “the use of animals in war goes much farther back than WWI, and much farther forward too, and spans more species and places than we would expect. Elephants, camels, dogs, dolphins, sea lions and carrier pigeons have been used (or are currently in use) on the battlefront in various parts of the world.” Different animals have been an important part of fighting wars all throughout history. War dogs in particular have many purposes, have been used in different wars throughout
There are sentry dogs, scout or patrol dogs messenger dogs, mine dogs, tunnel dogs, explosive detection dogs and many more. Dogs have visual and olfactory sensory abilities that are literally superhuman. Scout or patrol dogs are trained to work in silence and be able to detect snipers, ambushes and other enemy forces. Mine detection dogs are trained to find trip wires, booby traps, and metallic and nonmetallic mines. Explosive detection dogs are used to smell out bombs. “In the war on terrorism a common threat is explosives hidden on a person, in a vehicle, or roadside location. Explosives Detection dogs are trained to alert on the scent of chemicals used in explosives. With their superior sense of smell it is very difficult to package explosives in a way a dog cannot detect. Explosives dogs are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and in many other CONUS and OCONUS locations for this purpose.” Without the ability of the dogs to smell out explosives there would be a lot more lives lost due to hidden bombs. Casualty dogs are trained to search for and report any casualties lying in obscure places. They are able to detect casualties that are difficult for people to locate. The dogs detect some casualties that often mean the difference between life and death. Messenger dogs are very loyal dogs that are trained to be motivated by the desire to work between the two handlers. They are able transfer messages between two soldiers and they learn how to travel silently and take advantage of natural cover when moving between the two handlers. Dual-purpose dogs can do both patrol work, protection, aggression when needed, detection work and basic scouting. CTD (Combat tracker Dogs) can detect where IEDs and weapons caches are located, “but it’s up to the highly-trained CTDs to track down the person who stashed the explosives. This is a Marine program only. Although the job is in our single-purpose dog list, combat tracker dogs are more