Working with Dogs

[DMZ-LT]

Worked twice with a dog. First time , lead track hit a small mine and I was told to stop cause they were sending a mine dog out. Finnaly got to us and sniffed all up and down the trail for hours. Finally said OK and the lead track rolled a foot and hit another mine. Second time after a heavy contact we had blood trails everywhere and were going to chase after them. Was told to stop , they were sending out a scout dog. Waited a few hours and then out he comes. Went maybe a 100 meters and the dog collasped with heat stroke and we had to carry him back to an LZ.Tiny said they worked with a scout dog one day that set off a booby trap injuring its self and one of Tinys guys. A C & C chopper was near and flew in within minutes - to pick up the dog. Tiny's guy died bleeding to death.When they got back in Tiny went looking for the C&C chopper but was told by our CPT. that they did the right thing " cause that dog could save more GI's that Cpl Silon ever could "

[grunt66]

Worked with scout dogs a great deal . I can remember only one dog and handler that didn't measure up and it was the handler's fault .

I remember a bad fight once where we were pinned down , the scout dog turned his back to the MG fire and put his head on his paws to wait it out. ( He was an excellent dog , we had worked with him for several months .) Anyone else notice that reaction from a dog under fire ?

[Andy]

There are lots of people who have great things to say about dogs in battle but I?m not one of them. We went on a five man ambush, the handler was #6, guess the dog was #7. We set up in a pretty thick area. Around 2 AM we could hear some movement and the dog started to growl loudly. We started taking fire and ?someone? shot the damn dog. We beat feet and got the hell out of there.

At dawn we re-entered the wire and the handler went straight to our CO and wanted someone brought up on charges for killing his animal. I love dogs and have had one most always but a million dogs were not worth the life of one of those guys on that bush. Seems combat dogs are like liquor. You can have good or bad experiences with them. Guess the same could be said for women.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[grunt66]

Thought about that reaction for years ( animal turning its back to a firestom like cattle will to rain or snow ) . Talked to dog people and other dog handlers from the Nam but no one remembers a dog doing that in a firefight .
May have been just me not remembering correctly . I remember another fight where this dog detected an ambush . When he was fired upon that time he just dropped in place with his muzzle toward the fire. ( All AK as I remember )

[DMZ-LT]

Your probably remembering what you saw. Heck people don't act the same in different fights. I have met a guy I was in several fights with and his memory of many events are compleatly different than mine. Frank used to say our brains made different movies that day.

[39mto39g]

We called them Scout dogs. I didn't like them.
They would set off trip wires, The most dangerous thing they did was made you feel at ease because they weren't in "point" . I noticed a different attitude when we had dogs, it was like its ok to talk and smoke because the dogs don't detect anything. I can't recall anytime they help. A dog on a three day mission will drink all your water.
I would guess that there are some possitive things that the dawgs do, I just didn't see any.

Ron

[frisco-kid]

I didn't like working with them, either. To me, it seemed like we didn't make very good time with them along. I think they gave alot of false alarms. Maybe it was the handler, I don't know. You're right about the trip wire and water, Ron. Saw one hit one and kill the handler. Us other guys would have to carry extra water for the dog. Those poor buggers didn't do well at all in the hottest months there.

[DMZ-LT]

I didn't like working with them either but I felt sorry for them cause rumor controll had it that they could never come home. That was sad but at least I didn't have the black sif and wasn't being shipped to a hospital ship to die.

[grunt66]

Interesting ! Thanks people for the imput . Lt is right most of the dogs didn't make it back .

Like everything ,it was matter of training , dogs and handlers. My experience with scout dogs was positive ( although I don't remember taking them with us at night on patrols or ambushes) .

[Bill Farnie]

Had Scout Dogs with us twice. First time the dog and handler came out when we found what seemed to be an abandoned bunker/tunnel complex and they had to call in a medevac when a leech got up it's nose. Second time was on Hill 996 after we took it. Two teams from the 58th IPSD were tracking blood trails but I didn't hear anything about them finding anything/anyone and I'm sure we would have known about it if they did.

I thought that some of the dogs were able to come home with their handlers in special cases.