Tiny Boy

Working dogs get old fast.  Most working dogs live to about 8 to 9 years old.  They are not pets and literally work themselves to death.  When USAF working dogs are no longer able do their jobs, they are euthanized.  When a handler's dog is, as most people say, "put to sleep," the handler is sent to Lackland Air Force Base to train a new dog and bring it back for service.  In the U.S., the Air Force trains all of their dogs at Lackland Air Force Base and the handlers take the dogs back to the base to which they are assigned.

One of our handlers from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton Ohio, brought back a dog named Tiny Boy.  During training, Tiny Boy did not bark. The instructors told the handler working him that this was the dog they would want if they were in Viet Nam.  They did this young handler a disservice. The instructors should have known better.  A dog that could not do its job was put into service.  Tiny Boy was not aggressive and, therefore, saw no need to bark at anyone or anything.

All of the other handlers helped Tiny Boy's handler as he tried to improve his dog's skills.  It did not take long before Tiny Boy got a nickname, Timid Boy.  We were unable to make him aggressive. Today, Tiny Boy would probably have made a good drug sniffing dog.  A gentle dog that could walk amongst people.  But, he did not have the temperament which would make him an attack dog.

Everyone decided that Tiny Boy and Dawn should work together as much as possible. The Weapons Storage Area had two posts and we were paired up frequently. I guess the hope was that Tiny Boy would learn from the aggressiveness he observed in Dawn.

Tiny Boy's last night on post was a night that Dawn and I were working the Weapons Storage Area together with Tiny Boy and his handler.  The alert truck showed up to give us coffee.  Dawn was barking her head off when the truck drove up to the other side of the gate.  Tiny Boy just stood there watching Dawn, but did not bark at all.  One of the guys got out of the truck and kicked the gate.  Dawn went berserk and would have torn the guy to pieces if she could have gotten through the fence.  "Timid Boy" quickly ran and hid behind his handler.  That was the last straw for the handler.  Tiny Boy was relieved of duty.

Tiny Boy was retired from duty and euthanized.  The necropsy revealed that Tiny Boy had a weak heart.  Tiny Boy would have made a great pet, but he was not healthy enough to be an attack dog. The Air Force did not allow attack dogs to be rehabilitated to civilian life. It is sad that when a dog is no longer able to work that it is euthanized.

No!

No!

One cold night, I was sitting in the break truck with Dawn's leash slammed in the door.  She was not allowed in the truck with the driver or other handler.  Unlike your average house pet with a waggy tail, Dawn would want to attack anyone who was close to me.  Unlike my dog Jake, I could not tell her they were okay.  The only thing she knew was, if you are close to my buddy, I WILL EAT YOU. So she sat outside in the cold bored to death, that is until Fred caught her attention.

Fred was driving the break truck. He wanted to call someone, so he went back to the maintenance shed to make his call.  Dawn did not like Fred, but that was nothing personal, Dawn did not like anyone but me, and I liked it that way. 

I do not know if Fred taunted Dawn on his way back to the truck, thinking he was safe, or if Dawn just got excited about Fred approaching the break truck.  Either way, she was jumping around and barking when the door to the truck popped open.  At first, Dawn was off balance, but then she got her footing and launched her attack upon Fred.  If she bites Fred, it would be the same as if I had accidently shot Fred with my Colt 38 revolver.  

I was out of the truck instantly, but I could not reach Dawn's leash fast enough.  She jumped to attack Fred.  She was attacking Fred's movement, which was his putting his arm up in front of himself to protect his body from the attack. I did the only thing I could do, I issued two verbal commands: NO and OUT.  Out is a release command, even though she had not actually bitten Fred.

Dawn closed her mouth and her nose struck Fred's arm.  When she landed on the ground, she turned her head back to me, confused about my commands.  That gave me enough time to grab her collar and then her leash and I once again had her under control.  That was closer to a court-marshal than I cared to be.  Fred had to go change his underwear! After this incident, I always held Dawn's leash even if it was closed in the door.

Why My Hand is Bandaged

Why My Hand is Bandaged

Before I start this story I must apologize to Tech Sgt. Richard Waite for being less than honest about what happened on post the night I was bitten, and to my mother for not being the truthful young man that she expected me to be at all times.  I must also apologize to Dawn for vilifying her in this incident.

At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base we had three K-9 posts near the flight line where the alert ready B-52 bombers with nukes on board were parked.  Two of the posts were between the taxiway and the runway.  The boundaries of those two posts were 100 feet apart, which means that there should be no contact during the night between the two dogs and handlers.

Halfway between the two posts there was a transformer with a chain link fence around it and a free standing cabinet with the controls for the runway lights.  It was common for the two handlers to put their duffle bags against the cabinet and sit on it while they chatted, read a book by flashlight, or occasionally napped.  I was taught how to attach my dog's leash to the fence which would release with a tug of the loop but would tighten if the dog tugged on the leash.  

Some guys came to work with the intention of sleeping.  I tried very hard to stay awake.  Walking my post, the way I should, always worked.  One night, with my dog tied to the fence, I closed my eyes longer than I should have.  The break truck started up the road from the taxiway, which I should have seen coming when it left the flight line.  I stood up, and walked down the road to meet it.  It took me a few steps before I realized that my dog was further in front of me than her six foot leash should allow. Dawn had eaten the leather in the center of her leash.  I had a foot of leash in my hand and she had a foot of leash at her collar.

Two things: That was the last time I tied my dog to the fence and I never wanted to allow a truck or a person to get close to me before I was aware of it.  After that time I tied the dog to my wrist with her leash and I taught her to alert on trucks.  She already knew how to alert on people.  

At the cabinet, we sat about five feet apart.  This made my mentor, the Flight Chief, a little bit nervous. Between the leash and my reach, my dog could attack him if I was inattentive.  We both had very aggressive dogs.  Odd, but I remember his dog's name, Jumbo, but not his name.  He was a veteran of ten or twelve years and I was a dog handler of very few months.  He suggested that we make friends with each others dogs.  It made sense to me, so I agreed.

We muzzled our dogs and each of us took turns at becoming friends with the other handler's dog. After a few nights, Jumbo's aggression had subsided, so I took off his muzzle and started patting his head.  On the second pass, Jumbo snatched my hand. He bit my hand twice and when he went for a third bite, I pulled my hand from his mouth.

Now the reasons about the less than honest report that I filed about the dog bite:

1. I was supposed to be at least 100 feet from another dog
2. The Flight Chief was supposed to also be at least 100 feet from my dog and me
3. A handler's dog biting a person is the same as having been shot by that handler
4. It was not just my career at stake
5. We both would have faced disciplinary action and rightfully so

The Flight Chief decided how I should write up the incident.  Being young and naive, this is the report I wrote up about the incident:

As I was walking across my post around 0100 hrs, I slipped on a small patch of ice and stepped on Dawn's foot.  She snatched my hand out of instinct and immediately released when she realized what she had done.

This made sense to the kennel master.  Dawn was quarantined for rabies, just as a precaution.  I worked nights during that time watching the kennels all night, while my hand healed and Dawn was quarantined. Dawn did not dispute the story and remained loyal to me.

The Training of Airman Wallace

The Training of Airman Wallace

After I muzzled her, I clipped the leash to her collar, released her chain and walked her out of the kennel area into the training area where my training was about to begin.

Upon entering the training area, I put a choke chain on Dawn and removed her collar. The collar was worn during attack training and when working on post. The dogs knew that the collar meant work and the choke chain meant obedience and play time. The dogs loved their time in the training area. It was similar to when we had recess in elementary school--you had to behave yourself, but still had fun.

The kennel master observed Dawn and me as we worked. He stressed that I should issue my verbal commands in a stern loud voice each and every time. After I was doing well at that, he explained the hand signals for the verbal commands of come, sit, down and stay. He then had me use the hand signal and the verbal command together. Then we moved on to using hand commands without a verbal command. Dawn must have been bored to death.  She was doing fine, but, interestingly, never got a treat. She worked for praise! I also learned to praise her every time she responded well. If she did not respond promptly, I was taught to jerk her choke chain and make her respond to my command. I was informed that a dog's neck is strong and muscular and it would not hurt her when I jerked on the choke chain. I was taught that dogs are much like children in that they will always test you to make sure you really mean it! If you do not correct them immediately, they become unruly and impossible to control. This training was two fold: (1) to teach me how to control my dog, and (2) to teach my dog to respond to my commands. It is important that the dog responds only to the commands of its handler. It is also important that the dogs are not looking for treats, as it would be a dangerous thing if they were looking for treats rather than attacking an intruder, or, worse, not even alerting on him. Each dog has to want to work because of the bond with its handler.

The obedience training went well; however, the exercise part did not. Dawn wanted no part of running the obstacle course. I inherited my dog from a lazy dog handler. He did not make her run the obstacle course and she did not want to start now. The kennel master, a really sympathetic guy, told me I could not take Dawn to post until she could run the obstacle course, and that I had one week to get her trained. It was tough. How do you make a dog do something it does not want to do? I dragged her through every obstacle. By the end of the week, she started realizing that she had no choice and that it would be easier if she ran and jumped rather than being dragged through each obstacle.

The obstacle course ran up one side of the training area, across the back and then along the other side of the training area. It started with a jump through a window about three feet off the ground, then a jump over a four foot barrier. The last obstacle on the left side looked like an inverted V. It was six feet high and had ribs across the top half. The dog was to jump, put the front legs across the top and use the ribs to give traction for the hind legs to push the body over the top. Across the back was a narrow ramp to a narrow beam that was about five feet above the ground, and the dog would jump off of it when he got to the end. Then the dog was to turn the corner and run up a steep ramp to a platform about seven feet high with stairs on the other side. The last obstacle was a ten-foot tunnel through which the dog had to crawl.

Dawn and I worked hard all week. I had to prove that I had what it took to be a dog handler and Dawn wanted to prove to me that she was my best friend.

Foot note: After one week, Dawn could successfully run the obstacle course while I ran beside her with her leash clipped to her choke chain. This satisfied the kennel master and Dawn and I were assigned to B Flight. After two weeks, Dawn ran the obstacle course off leash while I ran beside her. We still had more work to do. After one month, I sent Dawn off leash to run the obstacle course, while I walked to the end of the tunnel to wait. Dawn was able to run the whole course without missing an obstacle. Both of us had been successful! Did it come without hard work? NO! When I first let Dawn off leash, she ran around the obstacles that she did not want to do. I went back to the instructions of the kennel master, "Immediately correct your dog and make your dog do what it is commanded to do." Dawn soon realized that she should not bypass any obstacles. She really wanted to please me. Yes, we were both pleased with the end results!