There are very few dogs that won't eat a piece of meat thrown to them. One kind, however, is a trained military attack dog. They are the canine version of a British Guard at Windsor Castle, they won't budge or show any emotion (beyond a kind of intensity like that of a wound spring). Looking toward their master for reassurance, for permission to kill, to maim, to revert to the natural instincts of a wild dog -- they await wound up and ready to explode.
A small child might confront such a dog -- "Hi puppy!" and the dog would ignore it completely. The child does not fit the profile of the enemy. Yet, with one word from their Master, "Get 'em!", or a secret code meaning the same thing, the dog would tear the child to shreds. Of course, the dog may have been trained completely in code, so that only a few trainers, or just one man, might be able to control the thing.
Military dogs are primarily German Shepherds and Doberman Pincers because of their strength, dedication and shear intimidating appearance.There is no reason that other breeds would be exempt. As long as they were tough enough for the job, they could be trained.
One also applies the same traits, in a less admiral way, to skinheads, street punks, and gangsters -however I would not expect them to be as well trained. Perhaps a better example might be a special forces soldier, with the severe haircut and ability to eat scorpions, if necessary -- perhaps a necessary evil.
Yet there are other possible military attack dogs -- the larger, meaner Poodles, short but extremely devious Bull Terriers, or even the teddy bear looking Newfoundland (a big black furred St. Bernard-like thing that is able to tear your head off in a playful way -- by accident.)
The possibility of meeting the toothed end of one such dog is fairly low for most people. Yet, in today's world of terrorists and NRA machine gun enthusiasts, their naturally violent Pit Bulls and other bone crunching hyena-like pets might be living right next door.Or it may be the guy with the pet monitor lizards and Gila monsters. The trained dog is at least trained, and hopefully is under control of the unfriendly owner,but there is little to gain by training giant lizards. It may be remotely possible (to some small extent) but don't count on it.
But I do admire the skill the trainers of wilder beasts. It is difficult enough to train intelligent beings like human children, and no one would trust a human child with knives or swords.To walk amongst animals that can just as easily kill you as swat a fly takes great courage. Those who train tigers or elephants must also risk great harm if anything goes wrong.
Some of the best trainers use no violence, such as women who seem to intuitively know the inner workings of animal minds, if indeed an animal can be said to have a mind -- perhaps they have no human-like mind, but they certainly have some symbolic abstractions that comprise the world they operate within. To a cat there is a "generic bird". They do not care so much whether a bird is green or white or whatever other notable trait. So a cat operates on a symbolic abstraction that a human would label as a "bird".
One of the difficulties with training animals, however, lies in the fact that other people know how to train animals, and how to breach the training by another person. This breaches overall security where the animal is used, of course. For this reason, many animals are trained by a single person, so that no other soldier, friend or foe, can control that dangerous animal. Hopefully only the enemy is challenged by such an animal, and not some innocent noncombatant. The soldier dog "defaults" to assessing any victim as "enemy" in the event the trainer is lost, much the same way that a trained soldier behaves with the lack of a commanding officer.
It is in this light that we have released "the dogs of war" upon the world. The world can only hope the training of those dogs has been thorough, and that the dogs do not go wild, ripping to shreds every imagined enemy that they happen upon. But once trained for war, the same dogs will not make good babysitters.
A small child might confront such a dog -- "Hi puppy!" and the dog would ignore it completely. The child does not fit the profile of the enemy. Yet, with one word from their Master, "Get 'em!", or a secret code meaning the same thing, the dog would tear the child to shreds. Of course, the dog may have been trained completely in code, so that only a few trainers, or just one man, might be able to control the thing.
Military dogs are primarily German Shepherds and Doberman Pincers because of their strength, dedication and shear intimidating appearance.There is no reason that other breeds would be exempt. As long as they were tough enough for the job, they could be trained.
One also applies the same traits, in a less admiral way, to skinheads, street punks, and gangsters -however I would not expect them to be as well trained. Perhaps a better example might be a special forces soldier, with the severe haircut and ability to eat scorpions, if necessary -- perhaps a necessary evil.
Yet there are other possible military attack dogs -- the larger, meaner Poodles, short but extremely devious Bull Terriers, or even the teddy bear looking Newfoundland (a big black furred St. Bernard-like thing that is able to tear your head off in a playful way -- by accident.)
The possibility of meeting the toothed end of one such dog is fairly low for most people. Yet, in today's world of terrorists and NRA machine gun enthusiasts, their naturally violent Pit Bulls and other bone crunching hyena-like pets might be living right next door.Or it may be the guy with the pet monitor lizards and Gila monsters. The trained dog is at least trained, and hopefully is under control of the unfriendly owner,but there is little to gain by training giant lizards. It may be remotely possible (to some small extent) but don't count on it.
But I do admire the skill the trainers of wilder beasts. It is difficult enough to train intelligent beings like human children, and no one would trust a human child with knives or swords.To walk amongst animals that can just as easily kill you as swat a fly takes great courage. Those who train tigers or elephants must also risk great harm if anything goes wrong.
Some of the best trainers use no violence, such as women who seem to intuitively know the inner workings of animal minds, if indeed an animal can be said to have a mind -- perhaps they have no human-like mind, but they certainly have some symbolic abstractions that comprise the world they operate within. To a cat there is a "generic bird". They do not care so much whether a bird is green or white or whatever other notable trait. So a cat operates on a symbolic abstraction that a human would label as a "bird".
One of the difficulties with training animals, however, lies in the fact that other people know how to train animals, and how to breach the training by another person. This breaches overall security where the animal is used, of course. For this reason, many animals are trained by a single person, so that no other soldier, friend or foe, can control that dangerous animal. Hopefully only the enemy is challenged by such an animal, and not some innocent noncombatant. The soldier dog "defaults" to assessing any victim as "enemy" in the event the trainer is lost, much the same way that a trained soldier behaves with the lack of a commanding officer.
It is in this light that we have released "the dogs of war" upon the world. The world can only hope the training of those dogs has been thorough, and that the dogs do not go wild, ripping to shreds every imagined enemy that they happen upon. But once trained for war, the same dogs will not make good babysitters.
2 comments:
It someetimes takes years for a War Dog to readapt. Many never do.
Good words.
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