used to conserve manpower, conserve life, and to 

 further the work of the military service through 

 the use of the dog's innate abilities. 



b. The Importance of the Handler-Dog Rela- 

 tionship. The dog and handler must work as a 

 team. Therefore, no handler must be forced to 

 train an animal that he deems unsuitable. For 

 the same reason, if a dog appears unwilling to 

 serve a certain handler, it may be necessary to 

 assign it to another handler. However, once a 

 team has been established, the relationship 

 should be maintained. Only the handler should 

 praise, feed, or otherwise handle his dog. 



c. Association of Ideas Facilitates Learning. 

 Where special equipment is used, the dog must 

 learn to associate this equipment with its work. 



d. Motivation. The dog should be motivated 

 not only by food, or by praise and petting, but 

 also by the goal of accomplishing a mission. The 

 dog can and should be trained to complete a 



task as an end in itself, not simply for the sake 

 of reward by the handler. In all training, there- 

 fore, the dog must be permitted to finish every 

 exercise successfully, no matter how many errors 

 it makes. The dog must always succeed. 



e. Terrain, Distractions. Conduct training 

 over varying terrain and near gunfire and other 

 distractions to develop the dog's responsibility 

 for given tasks and to insure the accomplishment 

 of its mission. 



/. Review of Previous Training Maintains and 

 Raises the Level of Performance. Handlers must 

 use their best judgment in determining how 

 often previously learned exercises should be re- 

 peated. 



g. Successful Training of Mine and Tunnel 

 Dogs Depends on their Care. Unless the dogs are 

 kept in good health, properly groomed, fed, and 

 kenneled, the effectiveness of the training pro- 

 gram will be diminished. 



Section III. TRAINING REQUIREMENTS 



14. General 



Most types of military dog training require an 

 unusually high instructor-student ratio. Except 

 for obedience training, nearly all practical train- 

 ing must be conducted on an individual basis. 

 The primary reason for this is the fact that the 

 instructor/trainer will normally be training stu- 

 dents with untrained dogs. Since the dog cannot 

 understand verbal instruction, the instructor/ 

 trainer must "filter" his instruction to the dog 

 through the medium of a student who is himself 

 untrained. This unique aspect of military dog 

 training demands an unusually high degree of 

 expertise and patience of the instructor /trainer. 

 Other reasons include the breadth and types of 

 terrain over which instruction is conducted, and 

 the fact that each student team must be worked 

 individually on uncontaminated training lanes. 

 It is therefore necessary that sufficient qualified 

 personnel be available to permit the assignment 

 of one instructor /trainer to three student/dog 

 teams (in effect, one instructor to six "stu- 

 dents"). To provide realism, insure troop and dog 

 safety, and achieve the requisite technical profi- 

 ciency, this ratio should be maintained as closely 

 as possible. 



15. Instructor/Trainers 



Note. The instructor/trainer is so termed because he 

 both instructs students and trains dogs, skills which are 

 integrated yet distinct. For simplicity, he will hereafter 

 be referred to as an instructor. 



Responsibility for conducting mine and tunnel 

 dog team training should rest with qualified mil- 

 itary dog instructors. Whenever possible they 

 should have previous experience in mine and 

 tunnel dog training. When a shortage of quali- 

 fied instructors exists, experienced mine and 

 tunnel dog handlers may be used as assistant in- 

 structors. This is not, however, desirable as few 

 handlers have the depth of experience "necessary 

 to cope with the many training and motivational 

 problems that inevitably develop in training 

 mine and tunnel dog teams. 



16. Handlers 



A mine and tunnel dog team consists of one 

 mine and tunnel dog and its handler. (Handler 

 students must meet the requirements discussed 

 in FM 20-20.) The handler is responsible for the 

 daily care and grooming of his dog and the main- 

 tenance of its kennel area. Since a strong bond 

 of affection between dog and handler must be es- 

 tablished and maintained, each handler should 

 be assigned only one dog, and he should retain 

 that animal until they graduate as a team or 

 until one of them is eliminated from the training 

 program. 



1 7. Dogs 



Sufficient dogs must be available so that there is 

 one for every student to be trained. In addition, 

 a number of dogs equal to at least 10 percent of 



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