Because “attacking armed individuals” and “not attacking unarmed individuals” are normally incompatible states, but the trainers have somehow resolved this vexing paradox.

I haven’t updated my blog in forever, but I have written about adopting MWDs in the past. The best place to go for information is the Department of Defense Military Working Dog School at Lackland Air Force Base. I apologize in advance if this link goes bad, I often royally screw up the html formatting (especially when out of practice)

The main page is here.

A couple of basic points:

1. Dogs are closely evaluated before being adopted out- some just can’t be for safety reasons, but many can.

2. There is a priority list for adoptions. Here is a quote from the website: “All our Military Working Dogs are trained at Lackland Air Force Base and then sent to operational units throughout the DoD. The adoption law gives priority first to civilian law enforcement agencies, then to prior handlers, and finally to the general public.”

3. Civilian Law Enforcement agencies get the first shot because some MWDs can’t handle the rigors of being an active duty MWD, but can work for a civilian law enforcement agency. Handlers being next on the list is a no-brainer. I don’t think words exist to describe the bond between a handler and his or her MWD.

4. Finally, a lot of the dogs who are available for adoption just couldn’t “make it” as an MWD. Even though they are bred for it, sometimes the necessary skills just aren’t able to be trained into the dog.

I hope this information is useful.

And they are not training the dog to jump out of planes. They’re training the dog to not go crazy being strapped to a guy who is jumping out of a plane. There’s a big difference.