each student class should be available. In any 

 given group, a number of students and dogs will 

 not be psychologically or motivationally compat- 

 ible, thus, sufficient excess dogs must be available 

 to allow for proper mating of handler and dog. 



18. Equipment 



Mine and tunnel dog handlers require the follow- 

 ing equipment in addition to their normal field 

 gear: 



a. Choke chain collar. 



b. Leather collar. 



c. Five-foot and 25-foot leashes. 



d. Harness. 



e. Feed pan. 



/. Kennel or stake out chain. 



g. Intrenching tool. 



h. Whistle. 



i. A pouch or bag for carrying food.* 



*Note. The military construction worker's apron (fig 1) 

 is ideal for this purpose, although ammunition pouches or 

 other items which can be secured to the web belt 

 are acceptable. 



19. Terrain 



All infantry tactical dog training requires large 

 areas of terrain. Fifty student mine and tunnel 

 dog teams, for example, require a minimum of 

 5,000 areas of training area. A good rule-of- 

 thumb is to multiply the number of teams by 50 

 acres, and then double or triple this figure to 



allow for rotation. There are three primary rea- 

 sons for these large terrain requirements : 



a. Contamination. The majority of mine and 

 tunnel dog training is conducted on training 

 lanes. After several days in one area, these lanes 

 become contaminated by human and animal 

 scents, and by the numerous holes dug and re- 

 filled. Areas should be rotated twice weekly to 

 allow the scent to dissipate, the vegetation to re- 

 cover, and to prevent the dogs from becoming 

 too familiar with a given area. 



6. Safety and Proximity. Since nearly all mine 

 and tunnel dog training is conducted in the off- 

 leash mode, the teams in training must be dis- 

 persed to prevent the possibility of injury to per- 

 sonnel or dogs by dog fights. In addition, train- 

 ing lanes must be far enough apart so that a 

 team working one lane is not distracted or inter- 

 fered with by a team on another lane. 



c. Diversification. The mine and tunnel dog 

 team must be trained to operate effectively over 

 any type of terrain. For this reason, maximum 

 use must be made of the terrain diversity in any 

 military training area. Ideally, basic detection 

 should be conducted over relatively open, level 

 terrain. As the complexity of training pro- 

 gresses, so must the complexity of the terrain. 

 The final stages of advanced detection training 

 should be conducted over the most difficult ter- 

 rain available, making maximum use of hills, 

 streams, woods, and natural and manmade ob- 

 stacles. A final point is that, where feasible, 

 training should be conducted in an area which 

 resembles the area to which the teams are to be 

 deployed. 



Figure 1. Military apron used to carry food for dog. 



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