From Service to Second Chance: The challenge facing retired military dogs

You would think that military dogs would be given the best care when it comes time to retire...

In this episode, we dive into a topic that might be new to some of our listeners: the rescue and rehabilitation of military dogs. Our guest, Bob from Mission Canine Rescue, shares his insights on the incredible work they do to provide happy endings for retired military dogs, contractor working dogs, and police dogs who have served humankind.

We discuss the different breeds of military dogs, the work they do, and the unfortunate reality of what their fate can be after retirement. Join us as we shed light on this important issue and learn more about how we can support these amazing animals who have dedicated their lives to serving their country.

For all the notes, links and related content head over to the full show notes at ourpetshealth.com/podcast/military-dog-rescue

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Transcript

Bob Bryant [00:00:00]:

No. Let's give the dog a lifetime vet care and nutrition. Good grief. He served our country for 8 to 10 years, and you wanna give him a medal and pawn him off on an adapter to go broke paying for medical, expenses, food, what have you.

voiceover [00:00:19]:

Welcome to the Call the Vet Show, the podcast that helps pet parents understand and optimize the Help a very furry family so they can live the full and happy life you want for them. And here's your host, Veterinarian doctor Alex Avery.

Dr. Alex [00:00:36]:

Hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Call the Vet show. I'm veterinarian doctor Alex, your host. And if we've not met before, then this is the podcast all about helping you understand your pet, Giving you the actions that you can take to optimize their health and well-being so that they can be a part of your family For as long as possible, living the full, happy, comfortable, and healthy life that you want for them. So if that sounds like something that you're interested in, then make sure you hit Subscribe button if you're not already on whichever app you're listening to this on. And if you're listening to this on the website, which I know an awful lot of you do, Then there's a wee button that you can click through to take you to the podcast player of your choice, and there you can subscribe so that you don't miss out any of the future episodes. With all that said, I've got a slightly different kind of episode for you this week. We're talking about Working dogs.

Dr. Alex [00:01:30]:

We're talking about military dogs and the life that they potentially lead once They retire, and I bet you it's not the life that you think they do. And joining me to tell me all about this topic It's Bob from the organization Mission Canine Rescue who do so much good work to create happy endings for retired military dogs, Contractor working dogs and police dogs who have served humankind. And so without further ado, here's my wonderful conversation with Bob Bryant, Co founder of Mission Canine Rescue.

voiceover [00:02:05]:

Here's this episode's expert interview.

Dr. Alex [00:02:08]:

Bob, welcome along to the show. I'm really Excited to be bringing possibly a brand new topic to to the audience today, so welcome along.

Bob Bryant [00:02:17]:

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be on.

Dr. Alex [00:02:19]:

And we're talking all about Mission Canine and military dogs and their rescue and rehabilitation and rehoming. But before we dive into Military dogs and why that's something that is really valuable service that you guys are offering. What brought you into this work? Because you're not from a military background and came this from quite a different angle.

Bob Bryant [00:02:40]:

From a business standpoint, I met my current partners through collaboration with an organization similar to Mission Canine. And liked an offer I made to them. They agreed to present it to their audience. The audience responded well, and we did great. When it came time to do some advertising to grow, the executive director of that organization refused to. And 60 days later, she had to get a real job, quote unquote. And from there, my partners contacted me and said, we don't wanna lose this great work. Will you help us cofound it? And since then, I've been their director of development.

Bob Bryant [00:03:13]:

I mean, it's a glorified title. I'm king of nothing, but I'm able to successfully raise about $1,700,000 a year to support our work. So it's been beneficial. And I do put my hands on a few dogs from time to time.

Dr. Alex [00:03:27]:

There's gotta be some perks for the job as well as all the amazing stories that you'll come across. Yeah. So so military dogs, Bob, what do what kind of work do they do, and what kind of dogs are we are we talking about? Is there quite Spectrum or is it quite a narrow field that they are employed in?

Bob Bryant [00:03:43]:

It's fairly narrow. Let's let's pair military dogs also with their, compatriots the contract working dog. They do the exact same job as military dogs. They're just owned by private companies, and we work equally with both military and contract working dogs. The primary military working dog you'll see in use either in the contractor world or the military world is the Belgian Malinois. They are lighter than German shepherds. They're faster. I think they have a little bit more bite strength and they're less prone to hip dysplasia due to their weight.

Bob Bryant [00:04:17]:

We call them the velociraptor of the German Shepherd family, and they're borderline insane. 2nd most common is gonna be the German Shepherd. However, they're falling, I won't say out of favor, but they tend to have more hip related Shoes, they have more heat related issues and they're not as resilient as a Malinois. Some other dogs we see in the working world, we see, German shorthaired pointers, we see Springer spaniels, we see Labrador retrievers, even see a Jack Russell terrier. What do you think of Jack Russell terrier searches?

Dr. Alex [00:04:50]:

Oh, searches for little nooks and crannies for hidden bombs? I don't know.

Bob Bryant [00:04:54]:

Yeah. Nooks and crannies or maybe drugs? Where where could there be lots to little nooks and crannies.

Dr. Alex [00:04:59]:

Well, in buildings and, daybreak.

Bob Bryant [00:05:03]:

How about submarines? That's where they search.

Dr. Alex [00:05:06]:

Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, my dad was a submariner, so I I maybe should have known that.

Bob Bryant [00:05:10]:

Here we go. Yeah. They, They serve they have, some jacks that are trained for explosives and drugs. And when the drug jack comes on, they're the sailors get nervous. So hopefully, nobody has anything They're not supposed to. That's, I mean, that's about the extent of the working breeds we see. Normally, We only see the Springer Spaniel, the, German Shorthaired Pointers, and the other smaller dogs. We see them primarily in TSA service, Transportation Security Administration, the the airport police.

Bob Bryant [00:05:43]:

We see a lot of Labrador retrievers still serving for the military. Normally, they're single purpose explosion detection dogs or explosive detection dogs. Sorry. And the Malinois and the Shepherds, they are dual purpose. They're trained for Troll apprehension and also for either drug or explosive search.

Dr. Alex [00:06:01]:

Okay. So they're working in some pretty hostile Areas. And I imagine it takes quite a lot to train these dogs and to to bring them into service as well.

Bob Bryant [00:06:09]:

It's about a 1 year process from start to finish when they're puppies. The military dogs themselves, they're given to, early on early in life trainers. It's called the puppy program down at Lackland Air Force Base. And these dogs are they they have some preconditioning and I believe when they're 6 or 7 months old, then they go into the regular, training school which is at the Lackland Joint Task Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. And then from there, They're deployed to the branches of the service that need them.

Dr. Alex [00:06:40]:

Okay. Wonderful. And so they've they've then carried out their service. They've they've done Well, presumably, most of them go on to do well because otherwise, they wouldn't make the cut. I imagine most people would then think that there is some program that they then go into to have a A a happy retirement where they, you know, live live the life of Riley. That's not the case.

Bob Bryant [00:06:59]:

No. Unfortunately not. And in fact, it's kind of a I don't know, I kinda get angry when I think about it. These dogs, especially military dogs, they didn't ask to serve. They were basically drafted. They have no choice. They live in kennels, you know, they're fed whatever the military wants to feed them, which is pretty good. They do get vet care.

Bob Bryant [00:07:19]:

But the military's idea of retirement now is, hey, let's give the dog a medal for their service. No. Let's give the dog lifetime vet care and nutrition. Good grief! He served our country for eight for 10 years and you wanna give him a medal and pawn him off on an adopter to go broke paying for medical, expenses, food, what have you. These dogs can have a number. You're a veterinarian. Is this correct, sir?

Dr. Alex [00:07:48]:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep.

Bob Bryant [00:07:50]:

We see a lot of cancer in retired working dogs, especially, the worst one in my opinion, Hemangiosarcoma. Absolutely nasty blood cancer it can get, for your audience that doesn't know. We had a a female German Shepherd named Nora that had it. And, they took her spleen out, they discovered it, she was fine, and then there was also a growth of it on her intestines, burst one day, and bled out. Nothing we could do about it. She died on the way to the vet. But it's horrible disease and it's because of the compounds that they've been exposed to. Also, even some of the bleaches that are used to clean their pental environments.

Bob Bryant [00:08:28]:

I wish that the military would be a little bit more serious about protection and contract dogs. Be a little bit more serious about their environment, their training, and what they're inhaling because these, these substances mess them up. You've probably seen similar.

Dr. Alex [00:08:44]:

Yeah. Absolutely. And, I mean, I think we've all heard about it from the from the Gulf War and all of these These things that the the the the, the human soldiers who are exposed to that having equal equal troubles. As well as that medical problem, I assume that there's quite a lot of, injuries and hang ups from that, thinking cruciates and arthritis and and all of those

Bob Bryant [00:09:05]:

Long Yeah. Cruciate surgeries, hip dysplasia, panis, you know, eye problems. The panis, especially related from sun exposure. Yep. Also from the bleach that they're using to clean some mitts. Some of the dogs just have a red, sclera in their eye, and there's you can treat it, but you can't cure it.

Dr. Alex [00:09:26]:

Yep. Yep. So these dogs so they've they've they've served their country. They've done a wonderful, valuable job, And they're kind of kicked to the curb effectively. I mean, that's what I'm hearing.

Bob Bryant [00:09:35]:

Well, when they're done with them, they're done with them. You know, they the military dogs either go to their former handlers, Or if they don't have a handler, they're then adopted to the public, but the military has gotten to the point they know us well enough that when they have a dog that doesn't have a handler. We had 1 yesterday down in Florida. The dog had a couple of, apprehension bites, but and 1 mistake bite on the handler, but There was no handler that could take it because they all had little kids. Yeah. So we take the situation and we determine whether we could accept the dog. If it's a dog that can be adopted, We'll accept it. But we're not a hospice.

Bob Bryant [00:10:10]:

We don't keep them forever.

Dr. Alex [00:10:12]:

Yep. Yep. So they get say, what's that what's that process? Where does Mission Canine Rescue fits in with all this, Bob. They give you a call and you get them to where they need to go. You connect them with people. What What work is it that you are doing that's that's saving

Bob Bryant [00:10:26]:

Several several instances, military handlers, when they find that their retired working dog has been deemed as excess equipment. Equipment doesn't bleed. It's funny how that works. When they when when they've been determined as excess, We'll we'll call their kennel master. We'll find where the dog is. The military back in 2016, was forced by the National Defense Authorization Act revision that was signed by President Obama to bring dogs to United States soil. When they retired overseas, the military got around it by calling for an op operating bases United States soil. And up until 2020 2.

Bob Bryant [00:11:09]:

We hadn't seen any assistance, but we had one good stroke of luck. They brought 3 dogs on a rotator flight with troops from Japan to Seattle, Washington. We had to get the dogs all the way across the country from there, but at least we didn't have to pay $5,000 a dog to transport it from Japan. No corporal has that kind of money. They just don't. Contract dog companies will often call us When their dogs are tired, they're good contractors and there's horrible contractors. There's more horrible ones than good ones. These are the ones that feed the dogs half rations.

Bob Bryant [00:11:43]:

They don't give him vet care. They never see the light of day. They don't get any exercise. We received Dutch shepherds that weighed £35 that should have weighed 70.

Dr. Alex [00:11:52]:

Yeah.

Bob Bryant [00:11:53]:

And obviously, they become neurotic. They have mental issues, and there's just a lot more rehab work that's involved. And the contractors see us as a way to keep them from being damned by the public. But as a result, we're pushing our public to contract both the contact both, military and contractors via their government officials and say, hey. You don't send a dog overseas Unless you're gonna guarantee us that the dog's gonna come home in 8 years, that they're going to get lifetime vet care and nutrition. It's only fair. And if enough people raise hell about that, it might actually happen. The the best day of my life will be when we're no longer needed.

Bob Bryant [00:12:36]:

I'd love to not have to do this work anymore. But until we are, not needed, we're gonna keep doing it.

Dr. Alex [00:12:42]:

Yeah. And I suspect it will be for a long time, unfortunately. You mentioned there, Bob, about yeah. And you mentioned there, Bob, about kind of the dogs being kind of quite neurotic or having issues. I mean, I I imagine working in that kind of environment and doing the work they're doing much like with with people. A lot of them do suffer with post traumatic stress disorder or other Neurosis. So what kind of, I guess, what kind of problems are you seeing from that point of view? And then what rehabilitation, are they needed so that they can then become pets?

Bob Bryant [00:13:12]:

The worst situations we see come from the contract dog world. These dogs are often handled by foreign nationals who don't like dogs to begin with. For instance, I had a Belgian mountain lion. His name was Anubis. He came from a contractor in Kuwait. When a working dog doesn't release its toy after it's given it as a reward. It doesn't work anymore. So if it won't release with the command out, They'll beat the dog or they'll choke it out.

Bob Bryant [00:13:38]:

And that's what they did to him. He was absolutely terrified of men. He urinated. He sold himself the first time he saw me. And my wife took him in and he bonded like a tick to her. In fact, he had so egregious separation anxiety that I bought a mannequin. I dressed it in her dirty clothes, put a wig on it, laid it on the couch and put a blanket up to the head, and that dog bought it. He would sit there with that dummy and she could actually go out and have a life for a while.

Bob Bryant [00:14:09]:

So we see a lot of separation anxiety from the dogs. We see a lot of injuries from dogs that are jumping different places, especially Malinois. We see a lot of cruciate tears. We see a lot of feed issues. And again, with explosive dogs, the big cancer. You know, it it's it's always present. We see it less we see less injuries in the military dog segment than we do in the contract dog world, but, but but they both have a lot of situations. It takes a minimum of a month to do an evaluation on the best dog, and we've had some 6 months.

Bob Bryant [00:14:46]:

And people ask us, well, how do you correct the PTSD? The answer is you don't. You just find out what triggers it and you learn how to avoid the triggers That get the dog into that mode.

Dr. Alex [00:14:57]:

Yep. Yep. It's something that's with them for for life, and you just have to man accept his part of them and then manage that situation.

Bob Bryant [00:15:05]:

Correct. Most military dogs, when we get them, they are returned to their handler without any time in our facility because the handler knows the dog far better than we do, and we just make sure that they have the available resources to take care of the dog.

Dr. Alex [00:15:19]:

Yeah. I love that. So I guess, you know, that that must be an incredibly close bond when you have worked in in Those environments with your dog, the bond that gets formed yeah. It must be really intense. So I guess that do they always connect, You know, really well afterwards because Yeah. Because dogs because as I understand it, dogs can have multiple or often do have multiple handlers in their working lifetime. 5. Yeah.

Bob Bryant [00:15:40]:

They they can have 5 handlers. And in the end, the military decides what handler gets the dog. Okay. Normally, it's it's the last handler, sometimes it's not. But generally, if they're interested, the other handlers will work with the handler to come and visit and, you know, what have you so they can see their dog as well.

Dr. Alex [00:15:58]:

Yeah. That's wonderful. And that, I imagine, can be a really great boost to that handler as well because they will not always be in the military, and and they may also be as well.

Bob Bryant [00:16:08]:

Yep. It changes her life. I've seen dogs be called by their handler at airports and have the dog run shrieking to the handler, you know, jumping their arms. It's a very, very beautiful thing to behold.

Dr. Alex [00:16:22]:

Yeah. Yeah. And and people who have left the military for one reason. I know on your So there's some some some wonderful videos there that show the stories of a few few different dogs, but it shows 1 1 lady who was struggling after leaving the military and and having this dog brought back into her life, and and it seemed to completely transform

Bob Bryant [00:16:40]:

Was this Zoltan?

Dr. Alex [00:16:42]:

It was. Yes.

Bob Bryant [00:16:44]:

Yes. Zoltan and Angela Neal. That was a great reunion. We were the the American, what, AARP, American Association For retired persons, they produce that video. On YouTube, it's gotten hundreds of thousands of views and we've had a lot of good response from it. It's, it's a great one. And do you know that that dog has learned how to paddleboard? He now paddleboards.

Dr. Alex [00:17:07]:

Well, I guess they must be clever dogs to, you know, to to to be in that Profession in the 1st place and, you know, shep you know, shepherds and all of the rest are yeah. They're very switched on. So Oh,

Bob Bryant [00:17:18]:

My shepherd offers me drugs on a regular basis at our local parks. He'll go over to a bush, next thing I'll see this tail wagon, and up he'll come with something. 2 days ago. It was a crack pipe. I'm like, put it up, maybe. You know, throw it away. But he always finds things. I had a bomb dog named Oreo back, in 2013 to 2018.

Bob Bryant [00:17:41]:

And Oreo would, he'd find fire Crackers, he'd find. Blasting caps. They never quit working. But he also learned to find lacrosse balls. And even when they were buried, he found over 500 in the period that he that he was alive while heading. Yeah. He was absolutely overjoyed every time he'd find 1.

Dr. Alex [00:17:59]:

Right. Probably earning his keep with getting getting those back to the to the cross Team man.

Bob Bryant [00:18:03]:

Exactly.

Dr. Alex [00:18:06]:

With regards how people can get involved if you know, you've mentioned that, You know, lobbying, maybe talking to to their representative about the state of these dogs and the fact that, you know, they can potentially be abandoned. But how can people get involved if they if this really kind of touches a nerve? And I imagine it will because especially in the States, you know, the the the service mentality is It's huge, so I think people will be quite supportive.

Bob Bryant [00:18:31]:

You're you're in the UK. Is that correct?

Dr. Alex [00:18:33]:

So I was originally in the UK. I'm in New Zealand now.

Bob Bryant [00:18:37]:

Alright. If you know anybody in the UK, I want you to recommend, an organization to them that they should support and that is Heropause .uk.org. They work specifically with British Royal Army dogs. We've actually taken a few from them. They're wonderful people, and they need help as well. The biggest way you can help Mission Canine is with your financial donation. We put 93¢ out of every dollar to the work. We really are no profit.

Bob Bryant [00:19:06]:

And there's sometimes due to the volume of work the public asks to do that we're running barely with our nose above the surface of the water. We do like people to lobby their elected representatives to talk about treatment the dogs received. Many times, our supporters will tweet about our work or they'll post about our work. We get support from that. In most cases, we don't use a lot of volunteers for transport just because the nature of the dogs. We want people that are that are handlers so that there's no, whoops, the dog bit me. You know, we're if we if we send a dog that's prone to bite, we want somebody that's able to handle the bite dream dog.

Dr. Alex [00:19:45]:

Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that's a really important point because a lot of, you know, rescue organizations will ask for people to To ship dogs across the country, but personal safety has got to be, yeah, at the forefront. Yeah.

Bob Bryant [00:19:58]:

I've seen some horror stories from from inexperienced people moving dogs that have the propensity for harm.

Dr. Alex [00:20:05]:

Yeah. For sure. And I think, well, that's a that's a completely separate topic, but there's a lot of Our dogs and I imagine it's the same with military dogs as well, but they will they they will show a lot of behaviors before they get to that Bite stage if they're feeling uncomfortable. But True. If you're not if you're not used to seeing those, then they often get misinterpreted. I cringe every time you see a A baby cuddling a dog on social media who's who's, in inverted commas, smiling Yeah. That's actually showing that's headset. Yeah.

Dr. Alex [00:20:32]:

Showing that teeth saying, I'm going to use these these, if you don't back off. But yeah. No. That's one Well,

Bob Bryant [00:20:37]:

I had I had 1 guy got nailed. He grabbed the dog by the cheeks. The dog bit him. And I just looked at him. I said, how stupid are you? You don't do that. Yeah. I was not his most popular person after that point, but I don't care.

Dr. Alex [00:20:50]:

Yeah. No. But that's why, yeah, financial financial support is is most needed. And all of those details can be found on your website, I presume.

Bob Bryant [00:20:59]:

Two places. Our website is missionk9rescue.org. That's a letter k and a number 9. Our Facebook work is on Mission Canine, also on Instagram. And most of our fresh Current work you can find on Facebook. I try to be pretty, steady in blogging on our site. However, you know, time, business gets in the way and sometimes it's not as active, but Facebook is always, fresh.

Dr. Alex [00:21:27]:

Wonderful. Fantastic, Bob. And all those those links will be in the show notes or description wherever you're

Bob Bryant [00:21:32]:

Thank you.

Dr. Alex [00:21:32]:

Watching or listening to this. So, Bob, it's been a fascinating conversation. It's certainly one. And before I got the email through, it wasn't a a topic that I was familiar with. It's been wonderful to learn more about this, and I'd absolutely agree with everything that you've said and how important this work is Because these dogs, they haven't chosen to be in the situation that they find themselves in. They've performed such a valuable service. It's really up to us as the people To to kind of correct this wrong and make sure they do live a happy, healthy, and pain free or, illness free as much as possible retirement.

Bob Bryant [00:22:06]:

You know, you islanders must take pretty good care of your dogs because we've never gotten a dog from New Zealand. So I think they must be in good hands down there.

Dr. Alex [00:22:14]:

I'd like to think so. I have no idea if I'm on this, Bob, but I would like to I would like to think so. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Bob, and, yeah, all the best for the future.

Bob Bryant [00:22:23]:

Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Appreciate you having me on.

voiceover [00:22:26]:

Helping your pet live the happy, healthy life they deserve.

Dr. Alex [00:22:30]:

So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. It was, like I say, something a little bit different. Not really directly related to the health of your Dog or cat. But I'd love to know, are you interested in hearing more of these kinds of interviews, hearing more about topics that are related To our pets, our animals, but not directly related to the health and well-being of your pet. If so, Then just let me know. You can hit reply to any of the emails I send if you are a subscriber to the pet post, which is my email newsletter that goes out, once a month every couple of, couple of times every month depending on how much I've got to say and how much I've got to share with you. I certainly don't bombard you with emails. If you aren't signed up, then you can sign up for that over at our pets health dot com slash newsletter.

Dr. Alex [00:23:16]:

And that's for the pet post and as well as Letting you know when I've released new content, I also run through all of the the latest news and developments in the pet health space. So it's definitely A valuable thing to be receiving in your inbox. You can also find me on social media. I have to say I'm not super, super Active on any platform at the moment. I find that it takes up an awful lot of time, but I do see all of your direct messages and do try and reply to them As quickly as possible. So let me know what you think. And if you do know somebody who would be great to interview as well, then Let me know or let them know and they can get in touch with me. And so that's it for me for this week.

Dr. Alex [00:23:57]:

I hope to hear from you soon, And I'll certainly be bringing you a new episode in the not too distant future. But until then, take care. I'm veterinarian doctor Alex, and this is the Call the Vet Show Because they're family.

voiceover [00:24:10]:

That's it for this episode of the Call the Vet Show. Be sure to visit call the vet.org to join the conversation. Access the show notes and discover our fantastic bonus content. We'll see you next time.