Airmen help Kyrgyz K-9 corps take shape

  • Published
  • By Capt. Tim Wade
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFNEWS) --  Airmen of the 376th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron here are training a new breed of fighters for the war on terrorism.
 
The Airmen normal protect the members of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, but are now helping train a Kyrgyz military working dog unit. 

A warehouse here has been designated as the playground, and when the building door opens, Tech. Sgt. Mark Lotre of the 376th ESFS K-9 unit gives the order to a waiting Kyrgyz team to begin searching the area.

A Kyrgyz dog handler issues the order, "???! - ISCHI," which means search to Valya, a 10-month old pure Belgian shepherd.

The dog frantically moves from area to area, but the handler controls the dog. The dog moves from wheel to wheel, up and down, and side to side of a forklift. Even though the amount of explosives used is very small, it is found by Valya.

Off to the second obstacle. Rows of pallets line the left side of the warehouse.
Valya, with handler in tow, weaves in and out of the rows of pallets then she sits down again. Valya's reward -- out comes the ball and it is time to play. Her handler throws the ball and off she runs. The game is not over though. She has one last mission in the warehouse. Valya searches a stack of boxes and again finds the explosive.

The training is a game that serves another purpose, Sergeant Lotre said.

"What we do is build the confidence in the dog," Sergeant Lotre said. "The physical ability and all that is one thing, but the confidence is important."

The confidence is not only important to the dog, but also to the handler as well.

"When we first started the class project, there was no confidence whatsoever," said Valya's handler. "The dogs were not trusting and confident in us, and we were not trusting and confident in them. We did not have that trust link between dog and handler. It has changed a lot. We trust our dogs and we know if an explosive is there, it will definitely be detected by the dog."

Prior to the war on terrorism, a military working dog unit was not a capability of Kyrgyz republic, Valya's handler said. The dogs are now on the front line.

"In fact, these dogs will work for the whole republic," the Kyrgyz handler said. "Of course, having these dogs trained well enough, they can help prevent certain terrorist attacks or explosions."

The Kyrgyz handler also said the team is looking to increase the number of dogs from three to five within the next year.

Even with such a serious job at hand, the handlers prefer to treat the training as a game. 

"The dog can't tell whether we're real world or whether we are training," Sergeant Lotre said. "All the dog knows is it is playing a game and we always let him win that game. Whether we are doing attack work or explosives, the dog is always going to win. Because once you lose that game and someone beats you, you don't want to play anymore. They always want to come back and play."

The training is not only for the dogs, but also for the trainers.

"When we are doing our training, we are training their dogs (and) handlers," Sergeant Lotre said. "We totally explain the method which we're using and why we are using it. So when they encounter another similar problem, they can relate back to it and fix that problem on their own."

The training is not going to stop once Sergeant Lotre and his team redeploy.

"We have already discussed with leaderships, the base and theirs, of continuing this training," Sergeant Lotre said. "Our replacements already know what these dogs are doing, where they (are and) where they need to go. We already have the foundation set, so when we turn the reigns over, they fall right into place and the training will continue."

(Note - Due to their regulations, Kyrgyz dog handlers cannot be identified.) 

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