How I met Dawn, 127X

How I met Dawn, 127X

As you always remember your first love, I, too, remember my first dog, Dawn.

It was in early fall of 1966 that I was assigned to the K-9 unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  I was shown around the kennels and promptly put to work.  My job was to feed the dogs in the morning, clean their runs during the day, and familiarize myself with all of the dogs.  The dogs felt safe in the kennels and became familiar with the kennel personnel who took care of them during the day. I was soon making friends with Dawn and started patting her head as long as she had a milk bone in her mouth!  Dawn was half German Shepherd and half Norwegian Elk Hound.  She weighed 80 pounds and was one of the most aggressive dogs in the kennel.  Dawn was well trained and I was the one who needed to be trained.

After I had been working in the kennels for a few days, the kennel master said to me, "Here's your leash and muzzle.  It is time to take your dog out or go back to the Security Flight."  Now came the moment when I had to overcome my childhood fear of dogs and step into the range of the teeth of one of the most aggressive dogs in the kennels.  The butterflies in my stomach began choking my throat.  I started repeating in my mind, "You can do this, Russ!" My knees were weak, but I opened the gate and entered the kennel area despite my nervousness.

Because the SAC unit was not a permanent unit on the base, the kennels were temporary kennels, not the normal concrete floor, closed in runs separated by concrete and chain link walls.  We had dog houses on a pedestal with pea stone for the run.  Their chain was around the pedestal post and they formed a ring around their space with the pea stone just from their running back and forth. Their dog houses were outside in the weather, not covered by a building with a roof.  Dawn's area was at the furthest point from the gate.  I walked through the aisles and Dawn saw me coming with the leash and the muzzle.  She started jumping up and down, not with aggression, but with anticipation.  She knew that she was going to be taken to the training area for exercise.  It was not uncommon for the daytime kennel staff to exercise a dog that was between handlers.  As I approached the ring of pea stones that defined the edge of her run, Dawn sat and waited for me to put on her muzzle.  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.