Heroic dogs: old news!

If you think search and rescue is a new thing for dogs, think again!  Smart dogs have been working on search and rescue missions for a long time, but didn't always get the recognition they deserved.  In Britain, they are trying to make right on the contribution of heroic dogs in their history.

Seven dogs, known as the "Magnificent Seven" played a critical role in search and rescue missions during the London Blitz in 1940.  70 years later, these brave dogs are getting the recognition they deserve.  Each will be named as an awardee of the Dicken Medal by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), which is regarded as the canine version of the Victoria Cross.

Rip, pictured here was originally a stray but proved to be a natural search and rescue dog.  He helped rescue more than 100 people in just two years.  Irma, another heroic dog of the era was convinced that she located a living person in a collapsed house, and she stood by the rubble for an entire day before rescuers pulled two young girls out.  You should check out the whole article in the Daily Mail to see pictures and read more about these amazing dogs.  

Wags to my buddy Shep for this extra special historic tip!  

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Lookout puppies land in the States

Rufus was no ordinary street puppies in Afghanistan.  He and his buddies, Sasha and Target, had taking a liking to the American soldiers and were not going to let anything happen to them.  When a suicide bomber was approaching a base where 50 soldiers were sleeping--they made racket.  Some soldiers didn't understand what the pups were saying so they tried to quiet them down.  But Rufus, Sasha, and Target did not give up.  They ended up spooking the bomber who set off his bomb before he was able to enter the building and do more damage.  Rufus and Target did suffer injuries, and Sasha didn't make it.  But that is not the end of this amazing story.

Sgt. Chris Duke was wounded in the blast, but had no doubt that he would have died if not for the lookout puppies.  When Duke returned to the base after being treated, he and Rufus became buddies, and Rufus even helped him when he was feeling homesick from his pregnant wife.  When he was headed home to the States in March, it broke his heart to have to leave his little four legged hero and buddy behind.  With the help of the nonprofit organization Robert's Cause and some savvy social networking, arrangements were made to bring Rufus to the States to live with Sgt. Duke and his family.  Rufus flew through Manhattan and caught a connecting flight to his new home in Georgia.  Target was on the same flight, but is headed to her new home in Phoenix to live with the Army medic who she connected with during the same blast.

NY Post ran this story along with another picture of Rufus all grown up.

Honoring vets of all kinds

This Memorial Day, please take a moment to remember our four-legged veterans too.

Wags to YourDailyCute for the tip on this touching photo.  

Hero by day, dog by night

Chocolat is another hard working dog stationed with the British military in Afghanistan. He recently found himself in the news after he sniffed out a Taliban IED factory that had enough equipment to make at least 10 bombs. He was with his fellow troops patrolling a marketplace when he knew something was up in one of the buildings. He safely led his handler through the booby-trapped building to the bomb making materials. Check out the video here.

Chocolat works hard, but plays hard too. His handler, Private Steve Purdy (pictured here) says, "He tends to wake me up a lot in the night just with his toy wanting to play, or he'll destroy something that's close by - like my flip flops." When he is not busy being a hero, it sounds like he is a regular dog during down time.

A dog, a cop, and a rabbi...

Montana in a long way from Israel, but that is not what concerns Miky, a trained bomb sniffing dog. The problem is they don't speak Hebrew on his new police team in Helena, Montana! Miky was trained by an elite dog school in Israel through the Israeli Defense Forces. After serving a tour of duty for the IDF, these dogs can retire or move on to a second career as a police dogs.

Miky was brought to the United States through a grant for highly skilled police dogs. But when he got here, his partner knew the commands, but did not know how to say them in Hebrew. Enter Rabbi Chaim Bruk, who taught the Hebrew commands to Sgt. John Fosket. Now that everyone is speaking the same language, Miky is doing great on his new job!

Helping Vets and saving homeless pets

Soldiers returning from the war zones need a helping hand, or paw. Post-traumatic stess disorder, or PTSD, is no whimpering matter. Soldiers suffering from PTSD often have trouble readjusting to normal life, have difficulty sleeping, suffer from severe anxiety attacks, and in extreme cases, they can be a threat to other people around them. The military is finally wising up to this growing problem, and they are discovering that service dogs can be a part of the solution.

This week, the army is having it's first ever animal therapy symposium in Ft. Meyer, Virginia. They will likely hear from all kinds of soldiers that are helped by therapy dogs. Some find that having a four legged companion helps break the ice in meeting strangers. Some find that having a dog in the bedroom helps them sleep, because they can learn to ignore meaningless sounds and trust that the dog will alert them to anything dangerous.

Pets2Vets is one of the great organizations helping out. Pets2Vets matches veterans with shelter dogs in the Washington DC area need of homes. Changing the life of an American veteran, and saving a mutt at the same time!

Protecting the dogs that protect us

The military can invest as much as $50,000 to train a four-legged soldier. That's a lot of training and a lot of money, so it is important that they protect that investment. Just like human soldiers, you wouldn't want them to go into the battlefield without proper protection.

Luckily K9 Storm has developed a bullet proof vest for working dogs. They didn't stop there. You can see in this picture that they developed a special harness for a dog and his partner to safely jump out of an airplane together! They are also working on cameras an d microphones for the dogs' collars so the humans can see and hear what is ahead, and even speakers for the collars so that dogs can hear important commands even when out of earshot. This isn't just for military dogs either, some police dogs are also getting this extra protection.

This is big business--K9 Storm nets over $5 million a year on this specialized gear. The co-founder Jim Slater didn't get in it just for the money though. As a K9 officer working in a prison that was having a riot, he was worried sick that his working dog had some protection to wear in that dangerous environment. Working dogs everywhere send him wags for his ingenuity.

Sabi the desert survivor

Sabi was a regular hard workin' Austrailian-Afghan bomb sniffing dog. Well, she was actually a "Special Forces Explosive Detection Dog" manning the front lines with our troops. While she was out working with her mates, they were ambushed by Afghan forces. Several soldiers were injured, and after the fire fight, Sabi was no where to be found.

Fourteen months later, she showed up at a security checkpoint with a villager, and was quickly identified as a trained military dog. Still in great health, they assume that an Afghan must have been taking care of her during her time AWOL.

Sabi was happy to be back--and jumped right back into her ball-playing routine. Sabi's story had become so famous that once back on base, she was photographed with Austrailian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US General Stanley McChrystal. Be sure to check out the whole slideshow for more great pics of this survivor.

Sabi is still in great health, but is not headed right back to the front lines. She is on her way back to Austrailia for some well deserved R&R.

Diablo, one tough dog!

Police dogs sure know how to get the job done. A very scared woman called the police when her abusive ex-boyfirend was seen wandering in the woods by her house. It is a good thing they showed up with Diablo, because this dog knew how to handle the dangerous situation. Diablo alerted the police when he located the suspect, and managed to catch him too. Despite being shot twice by the suspect, he held on tight until the police came with the cuffs. That is one brave dog!

Diablo was rushed to Matthew Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is expected to recover, but they are not sure he will be able to do police work again. One of the bullets shattered Diablo's back leg, and required extensive four hour surgery, so may have to go into early retirement. Police take care of their own though....Diablo's human partner plans to adopt him into his home.

Honoring four-legged veterans

Don't forget that our four-legged friends on Veterans Day. Highly trained dogs are working hard every day to help out our troops.

I am not THAT stinky

Dogs make great soldiers and police officers, in fact, trained dogs are one of the most effective bomb detection systems available. But Iraqi soldiers are hesitant to add them to their ranks. In their culture, dogs are considered dirty, so the Iraqis are not keen on offering the affection that bomb sniffing dogs work for. Americans and Iraqis are working together to help the Iraqi police develop a more general acceptance of dogs. Read or listen to this NPR story on progress that is being made with this project.

Tuesday & Luis inspire Congressional action

Tuesday is back in the news! Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about Tuesday, a service dog helping veteran Luis Carlos Montalvan cope with PTSD. Well, I had a hunch this duo could be an inspiration for something bigger.

The recently sworn in Senator Al Franken (yes, THAT Al Franken, from SNL), just introduced his first bill in Congress. Would you believe that Tuesday and Luis were his inspiration? Well, Franken had met Luis and Tuesday at a Presidential Inagural Ball earlier this year, where he learned of his story. All of this served as his inspiration to introduce a bill that would create a pilot program at the Department of Defense to work with non-profit organizations to provide at least 200 service dogs to veterans struggling with both physical and mental wounds of war.

"My hope is that at the end of this they'll go, 'A ha! These dogs pay for themselves or more than pay for themselves, we have fewer suicides, fewer incidents of hospitalization, less costs in prescription drugs and more productivity,' " Franken said to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Wags to Luis for speaking up! The bill (S. 1495) already has bipartisan support in the Senate, so I have high hopes that this will be a reality.

Tuesday's Tuesday story

This service dog is so special that he got his own iconic grainy image published in the Wall Street Journal! What makes him so newsworthy is that he is serving the growing need for service dogs for soldiers returning from war with PTSD. I just wrote about this a few weeks ago, but this is another really special story.

This dog, named Tuesday, reminds retired veteran, Luis Carlos Montalvan, to take his medicine, helps to keep him calm in crowds, and break him out of bad moments when he is having hallucinations or thinking about suicide. Tuesday knows over 80 commands!

What makes Tuesday extra special is that he was trained in the program of Puppies Behind Bars, where prisoners work to train service dogs. In turn the dogs often help the prisoners turn their own lives around. The WSJ story also tells the story of the prisoner who trained Tuesday while in prison and now trains dogs since being released.

Check out this video to see Luis's story and watch Tuesday hard at work:

Dogs can help soldiers struggling with PTSD

Dogs like you and me help our people a lot. But some people need a professional dog to help them. I was excited to hear that this group, Freedom Dogs, is helping out soldiers returning from war and struggling with post-traumatic-stress-disorder. I bet war is scary, but coming back to a normal life is probably hard too. I am happy some great dogs are being trained to make life easier for our veterans.