Navy SEAL Dogs

by Mike Ritland

  A puppy’s sight, sense of smell, and hearing are not yet fully developed when he is born. That means, early on, neither my smell nor my physical presence is as fully recognizable to him as it will eventually be, but I want him to have that early sensory experience as soon as possible. That way, as the puppy is developing those senses more fully, he’ll already have that early experience of what I smell like, what I sound like, and what I look like solidly in place. I want the dog to be comfortable with me. I also have multiple people do this so the puppy gets exposure to as many people as possible and therefore establishes a general comfort level with humans. I want a lot of different adults and children to be around puppies we’re training. As you can probably figure out, it’s not all that hard to get people to hold and play with puppies.

  In the morning and at night I’ll also usually take a cold, wet washcloth in my hand and set a puppy belly down on it for just a couple of seconds. Then I’ll put him back in with the litter and take the next one out and do the same thing until I’ve done it with every one of them. Throughout the day I’ll also constantly be picking up the puppies and just playing with them and holding them.

  I also start to play CDs of random noises even though a puppy really doesn’t hear much for the first three weeks of his life. Several different companies make these noise CDs that are typically used to expose police horses in training to a variety of different sounds. Essentially, these are “antispooking” noise CDs. They include train engines, whistles, firecrackers, thunder, machine guns, different farm animals, creaky doors, car and other engines, mufflers backfiring, sirens blaring, cars honking, and more. I play these CDs repeatedly to get the puppies accustomed to what is and will always be a very large part of their environment—sound.

  Dogs have very sensitive hearing, and our selective breeding of them has enhanced that ability. Also, because of the structure of dogs’ ears, they can hear sounds that are coming from a great distance. Pointed, erect ears are the most effective at capturing sound waves. Dogs can also hear sounds at higher frequencies than people can.

  Anyone who has had a dog knows that certain sounds, such as the whine of a vacuum cleaner, can really irritate him. We play these CDs to such young puppies because, over the life of the dogs, we want them to have minimal, if any, reactions to unexpected sounds. We don’t want to overstress the pups, but we do have to get them accustomed to hearing a variety of noises at various volumes. Later, when we do helicopter training with the K-9 candidates, that early exposure to sounds almost always pays off. All you can ever do in training is simulate how the real world of the dogs’ working lives will be. There is, of course, no guarantee to how any given dog will respond in those real-world circumstances. Training is all about enhancing the likelihood of a good outcome down the road. According to a study conducted by the U.S. military, mildly stressing puppies helps their immune systems develop and helps them mature more quickly.

  * * *

  At about the time the pups are weaned I’ll stop using the noise CDs and shift into another phase of their early training. At this point, I begin to work on evaluating and enhancing their prey drive. To do that, I’ll take a rag, something like a terry cloth dish towel, and tease a pup with it. I want the pup to get his eyes focused on it so he chases it. I’ll tease the pup a little bit. He chases, chases, chases. Then, bam! I reward the pup by letting him get the rag. We play a little bit of tug, and then I reward him again by letting him have the rag. The pup chews on the rag, which is basically a dog instinctively tearing his prey apart.

  One of the other things I do is wean the dogs early. Some people wait until puppies are seven or eight weeks old to start weaning them from their mother. I wean them at about four weeks. I do this for two reasons. One, it’s a lot easier on the mother. Two, I want a lot more human interaction at this point. I want to allow the puppies to get some of their mannerisms and character from their mom, but I need to be present to teach them some manners—not to mention a ton of other things.

  The single most important aspect of a dog’s training for the work they do is to establish a bond of trust between handler and dog. That begins in those very early days when we first start the work to get the puppies accustomed to human contact. If the pups are left with their littermates, and they have no or limited human interaction, they’re going to be very, very pack oriented, or very, very animal dependent. On the flip side, dogs raised this way are going to be much weaker when they are eventually separated from their litter, their pack. So I try to get an individual pup with me and around other people as early as possible because that’s the environment the dog is going to be in for the rest of his life. He’s going to be paired up with a human, like Chopper was with Brett in the SEALs. The dogs are going to be in kennels and crates and thrust into different environments, doing different kinds of work. So, from day one, I begin to get it ingrained in them that this is the standard, this is the routine, and then that becomes what they know as their “normal” and what they are comfortable with. It makes it much easier for them in the long run and prevents them from being confused by and potentially freezing up in any kind of new situation.

  If you think about it, the same is true with people. New environments and new things in those environments can cause us to not perform at our best. The navy has known this for a long time. That’s why they place such an importance on training exercises. The closer a simulation can be to the real thing, the better prepared the troops will be. This may seem obvious, but it’s worth pointing out that all the simulation work makes members of the navy—both human and canine—more able to focus completely on the mission when they are deployed.

  Again, because adaptability to an environment is so key to a working dog’s success, I do a couple of other things to enhance both the pups’ prey drive and their comfort level with the unfamiliar. Even at that age I start taking them all over the place. We go to the local hospital, to playgrounds, to Home Depot, you name it. Since the dogs will be transported to various locations a lot during training and afterward, getting them used to being in vehicles is an essential component. We also want to expose each of the pups to people in different circumstances, be it people in wheelchairs or on crutches or kids sitting in shopping carts. We go into parking lots and let tons of people handle and play with them. We take the pups on escalators and elevators and expose them to loud noises, dark rooms, and slippery floors. As soon as I can get these dogs exposed to stuff like that, I do it.

  I also do the rag work in all these different types of environments. I’ll even set up a little puppy obstacle course. Basically, I put all sorts of different objects and obstacles in their path. This includes lengths of PVC pipe lying on the ground or a little baby pool filled with plastic bottles and a hidden toy or ball. I take the pups to a suspension bridge that’s elevated and wobbly and get them around fence grating and multileveled pallets. I want them to have to crawl up and over things, to go underground at times, and to be familiar with and comfortable in all kinds of terrain. One of my favorite sights is the dogs diving into that kiddy pool filled with empty plastic bottles in pursuit of that ball or toy. Later, when the pups get bigger, I do this on a larger scale with an old bathtub filled with plastic balls. This looks a lot like those pits of balls that some indoor playgrounds have for younger kids, but while some little kids might hesitate before stepping into one of those pits, it’s a rare dog that will pause on the edge of a pool or tub to think about it before diving in.

  I really enjoy working with the pups at all stages, but I do get a big kick out of the obstacle course. It essentially is a doggy Disneyland for the pups, and it’s great to watch them figure out all the “rides.” That doesn’t mean that my interaction with them is limited to watching. At this stage, I’m very much into hands-on play with them. That includes me throwing a lot of mini tennis balls and other toys. I also still do a lot of rag work and tug-of-war with tug balls attached to a string. I yank on the string to get that tug ball moving, which keeps the pups
in pursuit of something—using their prey drive—as much as possible. I also really want these dogs to develop their sense of possession—that there’s something out there they have to get, and once they do it belongs to them. Later on, we’ll work more intently on the letting-go part, but at this stage we really feed their desire to chase and catch things.

  To reinforce the idea that these other locations are pleasurable and that actually being in them is some kind of reward, I will also feed the pups. Of course each individual Malinois pup’s food drive is a bit unique, as it is with any breed of dog. Even so, any reward experience a pup has that pairs the environment or place he is in with the receiving of a reward or meeting of a need is positive reinforcement.

  I also start to feed the pups to get them used to using their noses early on. While they are still with their mom, I’ll take a bowl of food and set it somewhere in the room. Not right out in the middle, but somewhere they have to search for it a bit. You’ll very quickly see the pups catch the scent and start using their noses to go find it. After a few days of that, I put the food in another room, somewhere just beyond the door to the room they are in. Now they come into the other room and the same thing happens. The pups get wind of the food, and they all use their noses to find that bowl.

  Every couple of days I’ll up the ante, so to speak, and make it more challenging for them. Next we’ll go outside to a field that is 270 to 330 square feet. At first I put them down very near where I’ve hidden the food, because I want to set them up for success, and a young pup’s attention span is incredibly short. As time goes on, I’ll hide the food in the deep weeds farther away. Then I’ll hide it several acres away, and they’ll just start walking toward it. It’s important to understand that I’m not trying to frustrate them. I just want them to earn their taste of success. That’s why when I go out to hide the food, I always place it somewhere downwind so that when they first step outside, they’ll pick up the food’s scent pretty quickly. Then, as soon as they do catch a whiff of it, they go charging out toward it.

  By doing things this way, I’m actually working with the pups on several things all at once. First, I’ve taught them to use their noses and to be successful at it. They have gotten repeated, positive results at an early age, and that helps teach them to trust and rely on their sense of smell.

  They’ve also had to do some work, though. When we’re out in a large area, they have to stick with it and keep air-scenting and walking along with me. We’ll walk and we’ll walk, and then bam! All of a sudden the pups are into the odor and they go into locate-the-source mode. This is exactly what they’re going to be doing if they do detection work later on.

  When doing detection work, a dog will take as many as ten short breaths a second to move scents far into his nasal cavity. Imagine a human trying to cover the distances these dogs do, going for miles at a time, while employing that kind of breathing pattern. We’d likely faint before we’d finish. While dogs, particularly herding dogs like the Malinois, naturally have strong endurance capabilities, that trait also has to be carefully nurtured and developed. Eventually the pups that grow up to do detection work will travel great distances on walks, sometimes while wearing weighted vests.

  If it sounds like I’m being pretty demanding on these pups at an early age, I am. It’s because these dogs are being trained to be working dogs. I know what their role in life is going to be, so I know the kinds of skills they are going to need to be successful. If you look at people who are successful at a sport, for example, chances are good that they began playing (note the emphasis here) their chosen sport at a very early age. The best athletes are generally the ones who picked up their game very early on in life. Sure, you could become a pro golfer, tennis player, baseball player, or whatever if you started at the age of fifteen, but the odds are against you. The earlier you start, the better your chances of being at the top of your sport someday.

  From birth to eighteen months, a dog goes through a rapid period of mental and physical growth. It grows from a helpless infant into an animal possessing the vast majority of its adult capabilities. It’s my job to help each dog maximize his abilities.

  Just so it’s clear, no puppy has starved or been injured in any way during the early training phase. I’m never punishing the pups in any way. Instead, I’m teaching them, from an early age, to work for a reward. In a lot of respects, as serious as the training business is, those pups are having a blast.

  8

  DETECTION TRAINING: PASSING THE SNIFF TEST

  I squatted against the wall in the dark, breathing the moist air, hiding from the dogs working the detection-training exercise. I was waiting for them to detect me, to pick up my scent with their noses and come find me. I don’t know if words can adequately describe the feelings of anticipation and dread that you experience when you’re in a situation like that, knowing that any second, a 60- to 80-pound monster is going to steamroll you. It is more than sweaty-palms time, let me tell you, but the thrill of it never gets old.

  Because of how complex the situation was that I had set up for the dogs, I was confident that I had plenty of time before any of them detected me.

  I was wrong.

  Within minutes, the first dog came blasting out of the darkness to pound into me. Even though I was wearing a protective bite suit, I walked off that field of battle with sore and rapidly swelling forearms, hands, and legs. Another trainer named Wayne and I switched on and off being the decoy all day, and we lost every time to the dogs. The dogs and their handlers did a stellar job that day. So my body may have taken a few hits, but my pride at seeing the dogs excel at their training wasn’t wounded in the least.

  * * *

  On that training day we were in a compound we had access to that was spread out over two or three acres in the foothills of some local mountains. There were eight buildings scattered across the compound. Given the nature of today’s warfare and the kinds of battlegrounds on which wars are played out, we have to simulate not only mountainous terrain for the dogs but urban environments, too. Building searches are a common part of a MWD’s duties.

  We had six dogs and six handlers working that day. There were three similar buildings on the compound, each like what you might find at boot camp. Each building had about a hundred two-tiered beds, a couple of common-area rooms, a large mess/kitchen area, some storage rooms, and, most critical to this exercise, two larger shower areas and bathrooms. In other words, these were sprawling buildings with multiple good hiding spots.

  We picked the largest of the buildings for our hiding spot. I explained the training exercise to the handlers by saying, “Okay, you guys are going to patrol in, cordon off security, and go into this building and try to find a high-value target in there.” That means the handlers and the dogs were going to make their way into the compound and secure it. Then they were going to enter the largest building and look for the high-value target. That target would be me in a bite suit.

  I thought the scenario I set up would trip up the dogs because of the combination of elements they would encounter. This was a daytime exercise, but I blacked out all the windows, so it was dark in there. A dog’s vision isn’t as negatively affected as ours is when we go from a bright room to a pitch-black one, but, like us, a dog still needs some adjustment time. I selected a hiding spot in the shower area that was as far from the building’s entry point as possible. To add to the confusion caused by the dark, I turned on all the showerheads with the water running full blast. In my mind this was going to be a major obstacle, the equivalent of a dog working his way through an outdoor waterfall in the middle of the night.

  My intention to make it tougher on the dog by having the water running turned into a serious disadvantage not for the dog but for me. I was in a huge bite suit, wrestling with a wet dog. It was all I could do to keep my footing on the slippery tile floor while I waited for the dog’s handler to find me and get the dog off me. I didn’t need it, but there it was anyway: more proof that I had trained this
dog well, because at this point in his training, which was about nineteen months in, he only obeyed the handler he was teamed with—and that was as it should be.

  * * *

  The object of detection-work training is to take full advantage of a dog’s innate ability to detect odors far better than a human can. As also mentioned earlier, a dog has, on average, 220 million scent receptors. A person has about 5 million. In 1999, researchers at Auburn University’s Institute for Biological Detection Systems conducted experiments on dogs’ scent receptors to better understand how they worked. They also conducted specific studies to see how little of an odor of something need be present in order for a dog to detect it. The study found that dogs could detect various explosives when only an extraordinarily small amount of the chemicals was present. They were also able to detect tiny amounts of other chemical “tags” that are used in explosives. Many governments, including our own, require odorous chemical tags to be placed in explosives as identifiers. That gives us some extra options with dogs that do detection work. In case a dog is not able to detect the explosives themselves, maybe he can detect those “taggant” chemicals instead. Either way, when a dog is trained to pick up the scent of explosives, you know when he’s found them because he is trained to give a physical response when he does, like that marine detection dog in Tikrit, Iraq, who sat down, his ears pointed straight up, when he came to the explosive-rigged hut.

  Another thing the Auburn study mentioned was that it’s not the amount of a hidden explosive that is important with a dog doing detection work. Instead, what’s important is distance. The farther a dog is from where the explosives are hidden, the fewer molecules of odor are available. This may seem obvious, but because of a dog’s keen sensitivity to odors, he will hit on that small number of molecules and know which way to go because the concentration of odor molecules increases as the dog nears the hidden explosives. Any object gives off an “odor cone” like that—molecules of odor travel out and away from the source. A dog’s ability to detect odors allows him, once trained, to lock in on that odor cone and follow it.