Abby is trained specifically as an “explosives dog,” just like Dex, the dog portrayed in NCIS. She responds to common commands, such as sit, stay, heel, come. She’s also trained on verbal commands, “away from us,” as John puts it, such as left, right, out and stop.
I asked John, how does Abby know when she’s supposed to be looking for an explosive? Is the command really, seek, like on NCIS?
“Yes,” says John. “Just give her that seek command and off she goes.”
What happens when a dog alerts on an explosive? “It depends on the dog, but they all have passive responses.”
In NCIS, the dog whimpered and laid down – that’s a pretty realistic portrayal. “None of the dogs will bark, none of them will jump around.” You don’t want them detonating something or drawing attention to themselves unnecessarily.
John was unable to relay any stories about Abby’s actual deployment, but he has a story about something she did once coming back from a mission:
Abby was an unusual Lab in that she did not like water. She avoided water as much as she possibly could. We were walking back and had to cross an irrigation canal – only about six feet wide. There was a very narrow wooden ladder bridge across it – really, really narrow. Well, Abby looked at the bridge, then looked at the water, which was black, dark, with stuff floating in it. The way she looked at it was like this was no deeper than any other water we came across, only a couple inches deep, not really a big deal.
So instead of going across the narrow bridge she was going to cross the water. But the water turned out to be about six feet deep! She went in over her head. I had to drag her out. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with that! She learned her lesson to check the water before she went jumping into it. If she saw water she would walk up to it and test it with her paws first. She eventually learned to like water some.
John’s tour with Abby was cut short after seven months. Abby’s fine, but John had to return the States. His wife, Tadzia, needed medical treatment and John helped care for her and for their three children – John, Joanne and Emma.
John had to leave Abby with a new handler. “She’s still in country. One of the other groups had a dog that had an issue as soon as they got into country, and the trainers from the company knew Abby was a good dog. They decided that instead of sending her back to the kennel they would switch her out with this other dog.” John helped with the transition, and is sure that Abby is in good hands.
On NCIS, Dex retired to the kennel that trained him.
If John has his way, he and Abby will eventually be reunited the same way. John is hoping to get Abby when she retires from military service. Most dogs serve until they are eight or nine, about four tours, depending on the dog. They do retire to the kennel of their training. The kennel then makes the final decision as to where the dog will go.
John is in touch with the kennel, so when that day comes he hopes to be first in line.
As it turns out, the NCIS episode “Seek” is an accurate portrayal, honoring these great teams of service dogs and their dedicated handlers working to keep us all safe from harm. John and Abby are one such team – dedicated to each other as they are to their service.
We only hope and pray for a happy ending to John and Abby’s story and for others like them, and thank the handlers and their K9s for their service to our country.
******************************
Other articles by servative
Trackbacks/Pingbacks