WAR DOGS - A Force Multiplier on the Battlefield for our Military

Man's best friends are vital to our Military succeeding on the battlefield

http://gizmodo.com/5943301/26-awesome-photos-of-war-dogs-showing-how-badass-and-cute-they-can-be

Check out the pictures at the link - awesome stuff !!

Middleboro Jones gets attacked by fierce puppies / While Guardian Angels soar overhead !

BLOGGER.COM is not working properly so I apologize for the way this looks....

When Puppies Attack !!

Yeah, you never know when dangerous things are going to happen over here in AFGHN - Like being muddied and licked to death by a pack of killer puppies !!!! These pups are in training to provide security for where we stay and I happened upon them and their handler walking acorss the grounds. These guys got me muddy and smelling like puppy slobber.... It was wonderful for a guy who misses his pup at home.....

Meanwhile, a few of our protective angels were passing overhead in AH-64 Apache Longbow Attack Helicopters..... AWESOME and exactly what an old Seabee like me loves to see. Sometimes things here are not all that bad. If I can just get the next few weeks knocked off........ 36 days until my break !!

Man's Best Freinds......

Know Your Labs...

Barrowed from another fine blogger and too funny not to share with you...

I Love My Black Lab " Dale "...He is a cool dog who just goes along with life and who loves his tennis ball and/or squeaky toys.

Soldiers steps up for a puppy that needed his help

A Massachusetts Soldier steps up and makes a difference for one puppy who needed help. This soldier made an extraordinary effort to bring one home from Afghanistan. If more people did the same here at home, we would have less animals in shelters.
Local Soldier Adopts Puppy He Rescued In Afghanistan
WBZ TV Boston

BOSTON (CBS) – Quentin Carmichael, a guardsman with the 181st Infantry out of Worcester was guarding his post in Afghanistan.

He saw something moving on a camera, and it turned out to be a den of puppies.

He saw local kids take one of the puppies out and torture and kill it

So, he decided to step in.

He gathered up the puppies and made sure they found their way to a shelter where they were safe.

They were adopted and Quentin got one for himself.

He noticed that as a puppy she was sad, but now she is much happier to have a nice home.

Puppies galore.....

Awwwwww......That's all I got.... " awwwwwwww "

Forget 101 Dalmatians, 16 are driving me dotty! Meet the unruly brood and the human and canine mothers looking after them
By David Leafe
UK Daily Mail 16th July 2011

As the July sun sets over a Shropshire smallholding, sheep graze quietly in the fields, horses doze contentedly in their stables, and hawks circle majestically in the skies above.

This rural scene is like something out of a painting by Turner or Constable, but suddenly it erupts into chaos more reminiscent of the Keystone Kops.

Around the corner of a barn appear 16 frisky dalmatian puppies, tumbling and scampering in every direction as they are pursued by their owner, 21-year-old Becky Elvins.

As quickly as she can scoop them up and place them in their large wicker basket, they spill out again, darting between her legs, nipping at her wellingtons and endlessly disappearing and reappearing in a polka-dot whirl. I feel exhausted just watching the bedtime bedlam which has been part of Becky's routine for the past seven weeks.

As a trainee teacher, she spends her day handling classes of primary school children — but that's nothing compared to looking after this brood, born to her much-loved dalmatian Milly at the end of May.

So numerous are Milly's litter that the Kennel Club demanded a letter from the Elvins' vet confirming they were all from the same litter, as the average number of pups born to dalmatians is eight. And Milly herself was one of a litter of 16.
As one of the puppies hurdles past my left shoe in a dash for freedom, Becky says: 'I don't know the odds against a coincidence like that but this lot certainly came as a bit of a surprise.'

I gently replace the squirming escapee in the basket. 'That's Tilly! She's one of the naughtiest. You can recognise her because she has two black ears. She loves to run away and hide behind the greenhouse.'

To me, these doggy doppelgangers are impossible to tell apart but Becky's love and knowledge of the breed goes back to her childhood, when she was captivated by the Disney cartoon 101 Dalmatians.

At 15, she decided she wanted her own dog to join the family labrador and the two Jack Russells owned by her sisters Lucy and Sarah.

She saved up £500 by waitressing at a hotel, and when she saw newspaper reports about the birth of Milly and her 15 siblings in a nearby village, she begged her mother to let her visit them.

'Mum said we could go just to have a look — but of course I fell in love with Milly the minute I saw her,' she says.

The feeling was reciprocated. Originally bred to run alongside horse-drawn carriages, dalmatians are well-known for their loyalty. Whenever Becky rode her pony, Casper, Milly followed faithfully behind.

She has since learnt to recognise the sound of Becky's car as she bumps along the long country lane leading to their house, near the market town of Church Stretton.

'As soon as I pull into the drive, she's there, trotting along beside the rear left-hand wheel,' says Becky.

Two years ago, it was time for Milly to become a mother and Becky set about the business of canine love-matching via the internet. This eventually led her to Coventry, the home of a spotty suitor named Dexter.

'He had a really good pedigree with loads of champions in his blood-line,' explains Becky.
The first litter resulted in 11 pups, but nothing prepared the family for the fruits of Dexter's return visit earlier this year.

'We took Milly to the vet for a scan and he could see only four pups,' says Becky. 'Milly was much bigger than she had been before so I thought there must be more, but I had no idea she was carrying that many.'

When Milly had failed to go into labour two days after her due date, the vet decided to perform a caesarean, watched by Becky and her mum Lisa, who runs an antiques business with her husband Terry.

'He started lifting the puppies out and eventually got to eight,' says Becky. 'We thought that was it but then he said: “I'll start on the other half now.” We couldn't believe it.

'The vet and his nurse aren't used to having that many puppies to deal with in one go, so Mum and me took a batch each, and rubbed them with towels to help get their circulation going.

'It wasn't long before they were running all over the place, tipping over boxes of cotton wool and almost sliding off the table on to the floor. They have been a handful ever since.'

Back home, the family made space for Milly and the puppies in their conservatory, with Becky sleeping on the sofa beside their basket, unwilling to leave them for even a minute.

Her anxiety was understandable. The first few weeks of life are a particularly dangerous time for puppies from such a large litter. Born pure white, and with their eyes closed until they are about a fortnight old, their competition for Milly's milk meant that the family had to ensure they fed in shifts.

'We'd let eight feed while eight stayed in the basket,' explains Lisa. 'Then we'd swap them over. Otherwise, the greedier ones would have taken all the milk.

'As it was, we noticed one or two of them looking a bit weak at times so we tried to feed them with formula from baby bottles. That didn't really work because they didn't like the rubber teats, but they all managed to pull through anyway.

'That surprised the vet, who thought we might lose one or two along the way.' With her milk eventually drying up, the puppies were weaned off an exhausted Milly. The Elvins family now have their work cut out grinding down food pellets and mixing them with warm water to form what looks like a doggy version of Weetabix. This is given to them four times a day — with predictable pandemonium every time.

'We put out four feeding bowls with four puppies at each one so they will get a fair share,' says Becky. 'Some hope! It usually ends up with them all feeding out of each other's bowls and grabbing whatever they can.'

At a month old, the pups had already developed individual markings and personalities, which have become even more pronounced since
.
The quietest is Prince, notable for having the fewest spots, unlike his brother Bertie, who has the most. Then there is Snoopy, with two dark smudges under his eyes, and Lexi, who has three large splodges on her face.

Most distinctive is the largest, Butch. Unlike the rest, who all have black spots, his are brown and he is particularly boisterous.

It was Butch who was gang-leader when it came to teasing the family cat, Dalboy. 'The puppies loved to chase him at first but Dalboy started lashing out at them,' says Lisa. 'They soon learned their lesson and now they keep well away.'

Such petty jealousies aside, there is no shortage of puppy love as far as the humans in the family are concerned.

As soon as she gets home from school, 11-year-old Sarah runs to the rectangle of straw bales which form the puppies' play-pen during the day and lets them out on to the lawn. 'She is out there every night, playing with them until bedtime,' says elder sister Becky, whose room is filled with dalmatian-themed ornaments and stuffed toys.

For her 21st birthday party, she had a white cake covered with black spots and topped, naturally, with a plastic dalmatian.

This, of course, is no substitute for the real thing — and Becky will keep one of the newborns, Maisie, to live alongside Milly.

'This will be the last time Milly breeds,' she says. 'We think she has had enough with two such big litters.'

The rest of the puppies have been put up for sale. The four bitches command more for their breeding potential and have already been sold for £600 each. The dogs cost less, at £550 each, but Butch (or Charlie, as his new owner has named him) has been sold, with the rest likely to go soon.

The Elvins family are understandably concerned that none of the puppies should end up at the real-life equivalent of Hell Hall, the fur factory presided over by Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians.

Each prospective owner is checked to ensure they can offer a loving home and understand the implications of taking on a dalmatian (the Kennel Club advises that the breed needs at least two hours exercise a day and is best suited to large houses and gardens).

When the puppies are ready to be taken away next week, there will no doubt be tears for Becky and her family. 'The first one to go and the last are usually the most emotional,' says Becky. 'But you know they are going to the next stage in their lives and that they will be loved.'

Each departing puppy will be accompanied by a blanket rubbed over with the scent of the rest of the litter to give them a comforting scent in their new home. And their new owners will receive a CD containing photos of them from their day of birth onwards, and will be asked to keep the Elvins family updated on their progress.

As for Milly — and all the family — they will be having a very well-earned rest. 'When you watch the Disney cartoon, you have to wonder if anyone could ever cope with that many dogs in real life,' says Lisa.

'We've loved having the puppies, but it's been hard enough looking after 16 of them — let alone 101!'

The difference a dog makes.....

Above Lance Cpl. Daniel Franke, a dog handler attached to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 2, enjoys a quiet moment in Towrah Ghundey, Afghanistan, on June 11, 2010.

Foreign Policy online magazine has had some great articles including their " War Dog of the Week" which I have featured - Enclosed is a link to a special on " The Dogs of War".....

I miss my pups something fierce and wish I could have one here while here...Dogs make the difference.

Here is the Link to the entire feature....

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/12/war_dog_ii?page=0,8

The difference a dog makes: No matter how war dogs were involved on that fateful day in Abbottabad, the military's canine forces are doing more than their fair share. And even if the true story of what happened never comes out, we already have plenty of legendary war dogs to celebrate: the three stray mutts living on a base in Afghanistan who wrestled a suicide bomber to the ground, forcing him to detonate before ever reaching the barracks where 50 soldiers lay sleeping; the fatally wounded handler who called for his dog with his last breath; the bomb-sniffing dog who, after his trainer was killed in Afghanistan, succumbed shortly after of a "broken heart."

Like other handlers, Dowling knows this from experience. His dog Rex was "a great moral boost, a symbol of home. You come back to base [to these dogs] that are so freakin' loyal -- a dog who is waiting for you, who will play with you because they love you.... There are so many benefits."

Happy 2011 !!! - Jet-a-Pet reunites strays in war-torn regions with soldiers back home....

HAPPY 2011 to all !

Hope that this Year will be a happier one for you & yours!

------------------------------------------------------


Pups need help and a man from Connecticut dedicates his life to being there for man's best friends...especially our military working dogs - awesome stuff !!!

Volunteers in the News, Business

Dogs of War: Creature Comforts from Iraq, Afghanistan - locally-based Jet-a-Pet reunites strays in war-torn regions with soldiers back home.
By Chandra Niles Folsom - Westport, CT

Man's best friend in the war zone would often have to be left behind. Thanks to a Westport resident's organization, that is no longer the case.

It was 1987 when Westport's Town House for Dogs & Cats founder Mel Goldman changed direction in a career spent caring for animals.

With all the heartbreaking stories circulating about pet owners' experiences transporting their animals onboard commercial flights, Mel and his wife Sandra decided to launch their own critter airline of sorts dubbed Jet-a-Pet.

It would become the foundation for a venture the Goldmans embarked on with a not-for-profit organization to reunite American soldiers with the stray dogs they befriended while at war.

The former stable boy from Brooklyn discovered his calling during the summer of 1969 when he worked on a dude ranch out west. It was there that he met his future bride.

"Sandra asked me to go to a dog show with her where she'd entered her St. Bernard puppy—but she actually had an ulterior motive," recalled Goldman.

Because his new girlfriend wasn't confident that she could handle the pup in the ring, she sweet-talked Mel into helping out.

"I did and we won the blue ribbon." Mel said. "Soon, we became breeders of St. Bernards and moved up to Connecticut."

In 1972, Goldman received a license from the American Kennel Club(AKC) to handle dogs. However the honor was relatively short-lived because a later court ruling prohibited the AKC from issuing those licenses.

"Nevertheless, having had the license in the first place was an important milestone in the formation of my career," Goldman said.

The couple went on with the Goldmans raising two daughters. After the kids left the nest, the couple found themselves with some extra time on their hands to devote to new doggie ventures.

"That was when I had a brainstorm to start an animal freight forwarding business," explained Goldman.

He trademarked the name Jet-a-Pet and set up a website.

"The military was the main thrust of my efforts and as a result we made over 120 shipments of animals over the next few years," Goldman said.

The business also provides door-to-door delivery, relocating pets for corporate clients, and shipping show dogs throughout the world.

Then came the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Goldman started hearing news reports about military personnel adopting abandoned dogs while on active duty but unable to bring them home when they left. The dog lover knew that he was in the perfect position to help when the call came.

However it wasn't as easy as Goldman had imagined.

"It was a very involved process but I wanted to reunite soldiers with their loving animals and so we managed to find various ways," he said.

There are other non-profit organizations in our area that have done work for animals along the lines of sending care packages to military dogs overseas.

Organizations including Give2TheTroops.org and supportmilitaryworkingdogs.org have shipped items such as doggles (dog goggles) muttluks (dog boots), K9 bulletproof vests and other protective gear. Military dogs are subject to the same dangers as human soldiers yet are not first on the list to receive protective supplies from the U.S. government.

Another problem is access to veterinarians. Only a few are deployed with U.S. forces and they are thinly spread.

Military working dogs first entered the U.S. armed forces in March of 1942 to serve in the Army's K-9 Corps. By 2004, an estimated 2,300 military dogs were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the vast majority of them German and Dutch shepherds, Labradors and Belgian Malinois.

Bred for cooler climates, these dogs suffer through sandstorms and blistering heat that can reach 135F while performing duties that include base security, individual and crowd control, tracking insurgents and explosives detection.

And with the vast numbers of civilian casualties and displacement, many pets end up homeless in the war zones. Some soldiers even manage to find time to care for hungry dogs and cats, bringing them food and water.

Thanks to Jet-a-Pet many of them have found new homes in the States.

"We were determined to get those brave soldiers reunited with their pets at all costs and as a result of those successes felt a sense of accomplishment that far exceeded any remuneration we may have received from the business," said Goldman

http://www.jet-a-pet.com/

K-9 Heroes in Iraq & Afghanistan receive thanks from home via care packages from New Jersey

U.S. soldier Jason Phillips, with Duco, a military war dog, on patrol in Afghanistan.

All I can say is that if you have to be out there in the shite-wilds of Afghanistan, you would find yourself very very lucky to have a K-9 companion as they have been proven to be 98% effective in detecting IEDs and other dangers.......God Bless our K-9 Veterans....They have proven their worth over & over again.


Canine heroes receive thanks
BY JUSTO BAUTISTA
NorthJersey.com

Valentine Cholminski and Tony Sigismondi are making care packages at the American Legion Post 227. "Dog biscuits! This is a first!" said Tony Sigismondi as he and fellow veterans from American Legion Post 227 in Totowa prepared to ship the biscuits and other dog treats and supplies overseas. "It was very unusual. Nobody ever thinks of the dogs, it's always the humans."

Seven hundred military dogs currently are serving side-by-side with American soldiers in the Middle East, said Ron Aiello, president of the U.S. War Dogs Association, based in Burlington.

In Iraq, the dogs are stationed at checkpoints and border crossings to sniff out explosives and drugs. Their duties have been expanded to include leading patrols and searching buildings for booby traps. In Afghanistan, the dogs also are used in mine-clearing operations.

"A lot of people still don't know dogs are used in the military," said Aiello, 66, who served as a Marine dog handler in Vietnam.

The decision to send care packages to military dogs in Afghanistan and Iraq was the brainchild of Christopher Hamlett, a shy 13-year-old from Mountainside whose mother, Michelle, is a history teacher at Eastside High School in Paterson.

Christopher said he was inspired by stories his mother told him about his grandfather, Stanley Hamlett, who was a military policeman and dog handler in Vietnam.

For the past three years, students at Eastside have been sending care packages to soldiers in the Middle East. Christopher wanted to get involved as part of a social studies project. If soldiers welcomed care packages from home, he reasoned, surely military dogs would, too.

"He was so touched by these dogs," Michelle Hamlett said. "The thought of dogs, basically, being trained to lose their lives broke his heart."

Christopher talked to veterans, and distributed about 1,000 fliers throughout Mountainside and Eastside High. The students and residents responded with donations.

"It got to the point where I had car loads — nine boxes — that I was taking to Eastside," Michelle Hamlett said.

"It's the right thing to do," Christopher, an eighth-grade student at Mountainside's Deerfield School, said of the project.

There was one problem. Eastside could not afford the postage.

"It would be way too expensive for us," Michelle Hamlett said.

Gloria Van Houten, an Eastside teacher who helped direct the project, turned to Post 227, and the veterans came through.

"It [postage] cost about $40 a box," Sigismondi said. He said the post collected money at fund-raising events to cover the cost of sending the boxes to the war zones.

In addition to $500 worth of dog biscuits and dog treats, Sigismondi, 79, a Korean War veteran, said his post also sent items traditionally requested by troops, such as toiletries.

The canine packages, which included flea and tick collars, squeaky toys, dog treats and puppy paw wipes, were sent last week with a goal of getting them to the war zones in time for Thanksgiving.

Aiello, of the U.S. War Dogs Association, served with the Marines' first scout-dog platoon in 1966 in Vietnam, where eventually as many as 5,000 dogs were deployed for scout, guard and tracking duty.

"Our job was to lead patrols, day and night," Aiello said. His dog, Stormy, a German shepherd, used the smell in the air to detect danger.

"We worked with the wind," Aiello said. "If there was an ambush ahead or a sniper in a tree, or a booby trap down a trail, Stormy would stop and kneel, and I would say, 'What do you see girl?' And I would report a possible enemy ambush at 11 o'clock in that tree line."

A dog's nose is "10 times stronger than a human's," Aiello said. "An analogy is that we smell spaghetti. A dog can smell the sauce, the tomatoes, the pepper, the oregano."

When U.S. troops pulled out of Vietnam, some of the dogs were turned over to the South Vietnamese Army. Others were euthanized.

"At the end of the war, there were 3,000 dogs left," Aiello said. "We gave 1,700 to the South Vietnam military; the rest were euthanized. We didn't like that."

Aiello said he doesn't know what happened to Stormy.

After Vietnam, the war dog program was disbanded, only to be started again after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military dogs are no longer euthanized when their tours are done. They are retired or put up for adoption, Aiello said.

The most common breed deployed to the Middle East is the Belgian shepherd, also known as Malinois, Aiello said. Most are trained at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Aiello said it is not unusual for dog handlers stationed in remote parts of Afghanistan to ask for basic items such as feeding bowls, dog shampoo and rope chews. His association also sends leashes and dog harnesses, equipment the handlers cannot readily purchase in a war zone.

"We try to give them a little bit of home," Aiello said. "It keeps their morale up."

E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com

Help support Military Working Dogs - www.supportmilitaryworkingdogs.org

US Navy Jeep supports our K-9 Veterans as they are vital to assisting the troops and keeping our military safe.....Enclosed is info on a charity that provides cooling vests for deployed K-9s...it gets pretty hot over there in the Middle east and Afghanistan.....think what the poor pups go through.

Their mission is simple - To provide cooling vests, and other protective gear such as Doggles, MuttLuks, and any other necessary gear to help the Military Working Dogs in Iraqs extreme conditions, who in turn protect and serve our Soldiers.

Read the enclosed and see what you can do to assist this great effort.

Military dogs need funding help
Military mother shows off dog's skills to students
Monday, 15 Nov 2010, 6:27 AM EST

ENON, Ohio (WDTN) - Students at Hustead School in Clark County were excited to hear what Starline Nunley had to say and maybe even more excited to see her dog Tushpa on Thursday.

Tushpa is not trained for military missions, but Nunley, who's son is a soldier, wants people to know that there are dogs who are saving soldiers' lives in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and they need help.

The dogs sniff for bombs and perform search and rescue missions and provide therapy for the soldiers.

The dogs are protected with vests that keep their core body temperature below 103 degrees; doggles that protect their eyes from sand and shrapnel; and paw protectors.

If you would like to help military dogs you can do so by using Nunley's web site,

http://www.supportmilitaryworkingdogs.org/.

Silly Puppies....Being silly......

Dogs are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole.....I have been too serious of late and wanted to post some pictures I saw.....pix of Silly Puppies being silly.....Enjoy !