Navy SEAL Dogs: My Tale of Training Canines for Combat

Part I: Navy SEALS and Dogs

3. A Desire to Serve and Defend

One trait that successful SEAL team candidates have in common is that they can’t stand to lose—and they won’t quit. Ever.

Part II: On Making the Grade

5. Not Your Typical House Pet

The dogs that we procure and train for the SEALs are all herding dogs—pointy-eared shepherds, usually Dutch Shepherds or Belgian Malinois.

The dropout/ failure rate among humans who want to qualify as Navy SEALs is very high. The rate among the dogs we select and train is even higher.

Dogs are legendary, and for good reason, for the sensitivity of their noses. Scientists estimate that, on average, a dog has 220 million scent receptors in its nose. The average person has 5 million.

6. Well Trained

One simple thing I do to establish that bond and their association with me as a source of positive things is to feed them and give them water myself.

Repetition is a key part of how dogs learn through association.

Praise is essential to getting these dogs—or any dog, for that matter—to do what you want. Praise can come in the form of words or a treat or anything that the dog sees as positive.

One of the most frequent mistakes I see people make with their dogs is that when “correcting” them, they get the dogs to stop doing what they didn’t want them to do and then continue to berate or punish the dog anyway. That’s incredibly confusing for a dog.