Quote:
Originally Posted by k9handler
oh good idea....thanks!
stomachmonkey I am thinking of it, or getting a CCNA and going the Networking way. I am over 20 years now so if I am not promoted this coming cycle then 22 is the most they will get from me.
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Thanks - use it or abuse it as you like
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YEARS ago a buddy of mine was an Army K9 handler at a NIKE site in NE Ohio. His dog Sabre was a 125 lb male German Shepherd that was donated by the Air Force Col. who'd owned him as a pet. The dog had had hard pad distemper when a pup and, although cured, Sabre was left with a VERY unpredictable personality (he'd spontaneously become very expressive in a most ungentle way with his very large teeth) and the Col. didn't trust having him around after a certain point.
When in training with the dog (Lackland AFB, I think), he was told by his instructor, who was informed of the dog's propensity to go ballistic, that if his dog turned on him he had to swing the dog in a circle to the point that the dog became submissive. Sounds extreme to me, but Sabre did turn on him at one point and he had to swing his 125 lb. dog in circles hoping he wouldn't pass out from loss of blood pouring out of the long gash in his calf that Sabre had opened up and that required 40 odd stitches to close.
There were, I think 8 handlers on the NIKE site and they would rotate weekend duties feeding the dogs. I went with him one freezing snowy Sunday to meet Sabre for the first time. All the off duty dogs were laid back in their anchor link kennels. All the water in their stainless steel bowls was frozen solid, except Sabre's, whose bowl was empty. I asked my buddy about that and he said, the water freezes solid, which really pissed Sabre off so he'd pick up the bowl and throw and slam it against the concrete slab in front of his doghouse until he'd knocked all the ice out of it.
Sabre was laying down on the concrete looking benignly up at us from the far side of his enclosure when John led me into the fenced off perimeter of the individual kennels. I said something like "Gee, John, he doesn't look all that badass to me" and stepped a little closer to the chain link. Then WHAM! in what seemed like a split second Sabre was on the fence, standing up at full stretch, hei teeth grinding on the steel chain links as he snarled the most unbelievably vicious snarl that I'd ever heard! I reflexivly jumped backwards, slamming into the kennels perimeter fence and went down! That dog wanted to KILL me!
John told me that the dogs had regular workouts with handlers who'd suit up and be attacked in a training excercise. Sabre was so big and so vicious that none of the handlers would suit up for Sabre.
What a magnificent dog! Of course, my buddy couldn't take Sabre with him when his hitch was up. When that time came, his wife told me he cried like a baby. Makes me a little misty eyed myself, thinking back.