Tennis Balls Help in Training Military Dogs
31.12.69
One townswoman Army mother is looking for spare tennis balls to help train dogs, but this is not for an provincial game of fetch.
Christine Jepson’s son Patrick Wilson is deployed in Afghanistan. He is in responsibility of a unit that works with specially trained dogs to search out improvised volatile devices and other explosives.
“I know he is near Kandahar but don’t know correctly the town,” Jepson said. “These are contract dogs, not owned by the Army. The kennel that trains them uses tennis balls to educate their dogs.”
Soldiers handling the dogs still need training aids. The balls are adapted to to reward the dogs when they save lives by finding explosive devices.
“They go through two or three tennis balls a week,” Jepson said. “With 120 dogs over there, that’s 360 a week. My son is Capt. Patrick Wilson of the 4th Brigade Disagreement Team Tactical Explosive Detection Dog (TEDD) that deployed from Fort Bragg to Afghanistan last month.”
His 120 dogs are trained to search out and on the qui vive when they encounter explosives. They get paid two ways, a pat on the back and the toss of a ball.
Source: Southern Pines Pilot