So yet another reason why I love my job...
As some of you know, I spent the last week in a Technician Conference held here on Okinawa for all the civilian and military tech/doctors in the Pacific Air Force region, or PACAF as they call it. For the most part we spent time in the class room getting Power-Pointed to death, then the next couple of days we practiced techniques on some patients, scrubbed in on some surgeries, and the best part was this... the military working dog demo!
We all piled into a couple cars and drove out in the weather (mind you we were getting brushed by a typhoon at this point and had wind gusts that almost knocked us over) and we watched the Marines get the workin' doggies all fired up.
The first pic is the super-duper padded jacket they use for arm bit training, as you can see it's very think but good boyscouts always come prepared and they had the first-aid kit out just in case... but actually, it was for the dogs in case they got hurt, not us!!
We had the instructor show us how to confront and challenge the dog, then gave us the okay to give it a whirl. I myself am a huge wuss and opted out of the demo as soon as the first girl came out of the jacket (which was supposed to be uber-padded) with teeth marks on her forearm... no thanks, I'm good with both my arms staying attached!
The dog in all the pics is named Aaron, and he's apparently the nastiest of the whole dog crew. He was so squirrley, he had to stand the length of the field away from us until the demo started and he bagan to "work." He was freaking nuts. He was only about 80 lbs, but like most marines, he was also intimidating!
So yeah, there is actually more to my job then givving vaccine shots and cutting out reproductive parts! If anyone out there is dying to see more of my conference group getting tackled and attacked, I have more pics... just ask!
Of course I want to see more pics. So u actually didnt get to get attacked, it looks like you in the pics. I thought dogs went for your neck which is not protected by the looks of it. I probably would of tried to pet it or something. Debbie
ReplyDeleteWhy do they only go for the arms, and not other parts of the body? Is that how they are trained? how do they calm the dog down after. Also after its out of attack mode, can you pet it , if its with the trainer? Me again, Debbie
ReplyDeleteHey Debbie... They are trained to only go for the arms or if the person it trying to run away from the dog, they will attack you upper arm/shoulder area. They aren't trained to kill, just to stop you long enough that the trainer, who is actually like a military police person, can get to you and restrain you himself. It's amazing how quick the dogs go from attack to relax mode. As soon as the trainer calls them off, they sit patiently and just wait for the trainers next command. It was pretty neat to watch. To the dogs, they are just playing a game they were trained to play. When they are attacking, the guys yell things like "YEEE HAAAW" in a high voice to get them excited and happy like they are doing a good thing. When they yell stop, they stop. There are some of them that are super sweet and you can approach, but you're not supposed to. A lot of the dogs get adopted out to families when they are done with their working career. Some are pretty sweet and make good family pets. There are also some of them that will attack for no reason if you approach them too, so it all depends on the personality of the dog. It was pretty cool to watch, but I didn't want the dog to get me. One girl who did it had the dog bite so hard it actually squeezed through the protective jacket and pinch her skin... Kris
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