[nagdu] Fw: The Dogs of War, Suffering Like Soldiers.

[Ed Meskys]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis Gosselin" <gosselin_louis at MYFAIRPOINT.NET>
To: <NHBLIND-TALK at LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG>
Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2011 12:05 PM
Subject: The Dogs of War, Suffering Like Soldiers.


The Dogs of War, Suffering Like Soldiers.
NY Times Friday, 2011_12_02
By JAMES DAO. SAN ANTONIO -- The call came into the behavior specialists 
here
from
a doctor in Afghanistan. His patient had just been through a firefight and 
now
was
cowering under a cot, refusing to come out.
Apparently even the chew toys hadn't worked.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, thought Dr. Walter F. Burghardt Jr., chief 
of
behavioral
medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland 
Air
Force
Base. Specifically, canine PTSD.
If anyone needed evidence of the frontline role played by dogs in war these
days,
here is the latest: the four-legged, wet-nosed troops used to sniff out 
mines,
track
down enemy fighters and clear buildings are struggling with the mental 
strains
of
combat nearly as much as their human counterparts.
By some estimates, more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 military 
dogs
deployed
by American combat forces are developing canine PTSD. Of those, about half 
are
likely
to be retired from service, Dr. Burghardt said.
Though veterinarians have long diagnosed behavioral problems in animals, the
concept
of canine PTSD is only about 18 months old, and still being debated. But it 
has
gained
vogue among military veterinarians, who have been seeing patterns of 
troubling
behavior
among dogs exposed to explosions, gunfire and other combat-related violence 
in
Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Like humans with the analogous disorder, different dogs show different 
symptoms.
Some become hyper-vigilant. Others avoid buildings or work areas that they 
had
previously
been comfortable in. Some undergo sharp changes in temperament, becoming
unusually
aggressive with their handlers, or clingy and timid. Most crucially, many 
stop
doing
the tasks they were trained to perform.
If the dog is trained to find improvised explosives and it looks like it's
working,
but isn't, it's not just the dog that's at risk,' Dr. Burghardt said. This 
is a
human
health issue as well.
That the military is taking a serious interest in canine PTSD underscores 
the
importance
of working dogs in the current wars. Once used primarily as furry sentries,
military
dogs -- most are German shepherds, followed by Belgian Malinois and Labrador
retrievers
-- have branched out into an array of specialized tasks.
They are widely considered the most effective tools for detecting the 
improvised
explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, frequently used in Afghanistan. Typically 
made
from
fertilizer and chemicals, and containing little or no metal, those buried 
bombs
can
be nearly impossible to find with standard mine-sweeping instruments. In the
past
three years, I.E.D.'s have become the major cause of casualties in 
Afghanistan.
The Marine Corps also has begun using specially trained dogs to track 
Taliban
fighters
and bomb-makers. And Special Operations commandos train their own dogs to
accompany
elite teams on secret missions like the Navy SEAL raid that led to the 
killing
of
Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Across all the forces, more than 50 military 
dogs
have
been killed since 2005.
The number of working dogs on active duty has risen to 2,700, from 1,800 in
2001,
and the training school headquartered here at Lackland has gotten busy,
preparing
about 500 dogs a year. So has the Holland hospital, the Pentagon's canine
version
of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Dr. Burghardt, a lanky 59-year-old who retired last year from the Air Force 
as a
colonel, rarely sees his PTSD patients in the flesh. Consultations with
veterinarians
in the field are generally done by phone, e-mail or Skype, and often involve
video
documentation.
In a series of videos that Dr. Burghardt uses to train veterinarians to spot
canine
PTSD, one shepherd barks wildly at the sound of gunfire that it had once
tolerated
in silence. Another can be seen confidently inspecting the interior of cars 
but
then
refusing to go inside a bus or a building. Another sits listlessly on a 
barrier
wall,
then after finally responding to its handler's summons, runs away from a 
group
of
Afghan soldiers.
In each case, Dr. Burghardt theorizes, the dogs were using an object, 
vehicle or
person as a 'cue' for some violence they had witnessed. If you want to put 
doggy
thoughts into their heads,' he said, 'the dog is thinking: when I see this 
kind
of
individual, things go boom, and I'm distressed.
Treatment can be tricky. Since the patient cannot explain what is wrong,
veterinarians
and handlers must make educated guesses about the traumatizing events. Care 
can
be
as simple as taking a dog off patrol and giving it lots of exercise, 
playtime
and
gentle obedience training.
More serious cases will receive what Dr. Burghardt calls 'desensitization
counterconditioning,'
which entails exposing the dog at a safe distance to a sight or sound that 
might
set off a reaction -- a gunshot, a loud bang or a vehicle, for instance. If 
the
dog
does not react, it is rewarded, and the trigger -- 'the spider in a glass 
box,'
Dr.
Burghardt calls it -- is moved progressively closer.
Gina, a shepherd with PTSD who was the subject of news articles last year, 
was
successfully
treated with desensitization and has been cleared to deploy again, said 
Tech.
Sgt.
Amanda Callahan, a spokeswoman at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.
Some dogs are also treated with the same medications used to fight panic 
attacks
in humans. Dr. Burghardt asserts that medications seem particularly 
effective
when
administered soon after traumatizing events. The Labrador retriever that 
cowered
under a cot after a firefight, for instance, was given Xanax, an 
anti-anxiety
drug,
and within days was working well again.
Dogs that do not recover quickly are returned to their home bases for
longer-term
treatment. But if they continue to show symptoms after three months, they 
are
usually
retired or transferred to different duties, Dr. Burghardt said.
As with humans, there is much debate about treatment, with little research 
yet
to
guide veterinarians. Lee Charles Kelley, a dog trainer who writes a blog for
Psychology
Today called 'My Puppy, My Self,' says medications should be used only as a
stopgap.
We don't even know how they work in people,' he said.
In the civilian dog world, a growing number of animal behaviorists seem to 
be
endorsing
the concept of canine PTSD, saying it also affects household pets who 
experience
car accidents and even less traumatic events.
Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at the 
Cummings
School
of Veterinary Medicine at Tuft University, said he had written about and 
treated
dogs with PTSD-like symptoms for years -- but did not call it PTSD until
recently.
Asked if the disorder could be cured, Dr. Dodman said probably not.
It is more management,' he said. Dogs never forget.
PHOTOS: Yuri receives aquatic therapy at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. A
hospital
there treats military dogs suffering behavioral problems acquired in the 
field.;
Staff Sgt. Shane Larson instructs a dog in a warehouse drill. American 
combat
forces
in Iraq and Afghanistan used 650 dogs to sniff out bombs and the enemy.
(PHOTOGRAPHS
BY BRYCE HARPER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) .