Written by Todd DePastino
On March 13, 2023, the Veterans Breakfast Club held a special program in honor of Canine Veterans Day. Three veteran dog handlers shared their stories and talked about the history of working dogs in the military.
March 13 marks the anniversary of the creation of the War Dog Program by the US Army in 1942. The War Dog Program was established at the request of the American Kennel Club, with thousands of dogs trained for various tasks, including tracking, scouting, patrol, sentry duty, messaging, and mine detection.
Dogs had been used in World War I by Germany, Belgium, and Britain, for tasks such as pulling guns and supplies, locating wounded soldiers, carrying messages, and pulling telephone lines.
Sergeant Stubby, a famous war dog from World War I, served in the 102nd Infantry Regiment and the 26th Yankee Division, participating in 17 battles. He is known for his bravery and for once catching a German soldier by the seat of his pants.
Today, all military dog training happens at a joint training center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. There, instructors assess the handler’s personality and match them with a suitable dog. The pairing of handlers and dogs is based on personality compatibility, and that is the job of the Kennel Master.
Sgt Andrew Kowtko was a Marine Kennel Master. He responsibility was to run the administrative aspects of the kennel, ensuring its smooth operation. The Kennel Master needs to understand the personalities of both the dogs and the handlers to create successful teams.
Kennel Masters, says, Kowtko, “start figuring out your personality. Are you an overly aggressive guy? Are you not as aggressive? Are you more a backseat kind of person?”
Kennel Masters makes those assessments and start pairing dogs with handlers.
“You know the personality of each individual dog you know kind of dog or what kind of Handler each dog needs in order to survive and thrive and make a good team.”
Kennel Master, says Kowtko, “is probably the second best job in the Marine Corps. The best job is being dog handler.”
Kennel Master training is relatively short, lasting only two months, but it takes years to truly understand the intangible aspects of the job.
“Working with dogs is a lot easier than working with people because people have personalities and as you as they gain more rank it’s harder to influence their personality and decision-making. Dogs, meanwhile, whether they’re one year old or eight years old you can still have influence.”
Dogs are naturally predisposed to hunting, and dog trainers simply redirect this instinct towards tasks like detecting bombs or narcotics.
The military acquires dogs through two programs: the purchasing program and the puppy program, which breeds dogs and cares for them from cradle to grave.
Dogs from the puppy program are typically received at around 1.5 years old, while purchased dogs are usually 2.5 to 3 years old.
A significant number of dogs, around 10-15%, wash out of the program each year. Washed-out dogs are typically retired and adopted out to individuals in the area. The primary method for retiring military working dogs is adoption. If a dog is deemed too aggressive or has health issues that affect their quality of life, they may be euthanized.
The dogs may react defensively to new handlers because they are unsure of how they will be treated.
“The first time you step into that kennel with the dog and you see them you see the haunches go up you see them standing in a corner just waiting for you, you’re likem, ‘well one of us one of us is getting bit today and I’m not a very good biter.’ So, it’s a little intimidating,” says Sgt. Andrew Kowtko, a current Marine dog handler.
Sgt. Andrew Kowtko was a dog person growing up. He always wanted to be a dog handler, starting in high school, though now the only pet in his family is a cat, his wife’s.
His interest in dog handling stemmed from an incident during a soccer game where he got into a fight and the police showed up. He saw a police dog in action and, in the military, was impressed by the respect the dogs commanded and wanted to be part of that community.
Vietnam veteran Roger Jundt was an Army dog handler. Roger volunteered for the draft, inspired by his older brother’s service in Korea and Vietnam.
“The Army sent me to Fort Lewis, Washington for Basic Training and AIT, and when I graduated out of there they were sending troops to Fort Benning, Georgia for NCO School. We called it ‘Shake and Bake School.’ They were training you to become a squad leader in Vietnam.”
Roger didn’t want to be a squad leader, so when he heard about dog school, he volunteered. “The rest is history.”
His dog, trained at Fort Benning in 1970, was a mixed breed named Kaiser. Kaiser was not significantly different from other dogs he grew up with, but he was intelligent. Kaiser was recovering from wounds sustained in a dog fight when he was acquired by the Army.
Out of the 4,000 dogs deployed to Vietnam, only 200 made it home. The rest were killed or euthanized. The Army didn’t keep many records about the fate of military dogs in Vietnam, making precise numbers and stories difficult to track. The Air Force, says Jundt, kept better records.
Kaiser was eventually euthanized in Vietnam due to congestive heart failure.
Military working dogs only started returning from deployments in large numbers during the Desert Shield/Desert Storm era.
“Dogs are no longer left behind. That was a result of lessons learned,” says Kowtko.
Army Vietnam veteran Rick Claggett’s working dog was named King, a scout dog trained to detect the enemy, snipers, ambushes, and trip wires. He also detected punji pits, which were holes dug by the Viet Cong, filled with sharpened bamboo sticks, often coated with poison.
King’s keen sense of smell and hearing allowed him to detect these dangers.
Claggett didn’t encounter any tunnels during his time in Vietnam, he believes dogs could have been trained to detect tunnel entrances. He emphasizes the importance of dogs in detecting hidden dangers and providing early warning for soldiers.
The enemy attempted to confuse the dogs by sprinkling pepper, but the dogs started sneezing, and military personnel could then figure the pepper was hiding a trap door.
Rick says they used shipping crates dog shelters in Vietnam. Most of the dogs there were German Shepherds. Rick emphasizes the importance of having good control of the dog off-leash when working in combat.
Iraq War Army veteran Derek Szmyt is not a dog handler, but he adopted a dog named Kindi while serving in Iraq.
Kindi was found by a patrol unit in a Baghdad suburb. The unit saw kids kicking a small puppy, and picked up the dog. Kindi was brought to the Green Zone for veterinary care and was officially adopted as a force protection dog.
Kindi had official orders from the Army and served as a companion and emotional support for soldiers.
Kindi had keen sense of smell made him an effective force protection asset, detecting threats faster than any equipment.
Derek’s role was as Kindi’s caretaker, providing him with companionship and care.
Kindi helped soldiers cope with the stress of being away from home and provided a sense of comfort.
When Derek left Iraq, he had to leave Kindi behind, but the incoming unit’s commander, Captain Molnar, promised to care for him.
Derek was able to bring back to the United States through the organization Operation Baghdad Pups, with the help of Terry Chris, a woman who rescued many military working dogs.
Kindi was a puppy who was kicked in Baghdad and is now 15 years old.
History teacher Scott Masters shared photos of Evgeny Voytinski, a Soviet dog handler during World War II, who he interviewed in Toronto. Voytinski confirmed that the stories about Russian tank dogs being trained to strap bombs to themselves and attack German tanks were mostly propaganda.
Air Force veteran Dave Sever shared a story about Corporal Pete, a bomb-sniffing dog he evacuated from Afghanistan in 2010. Sever explained that military working dogs receive the same evacuation priority as human patients, and some dogs were even evacuated directly from the vet clinic.
