“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” – Josh Billings

A few months ago, we wrote a piece on the Fox Nation show Hero Dogs. The show highlights the loyalty, courage, and selflessness of our trained canine warriors that work with our military, law enforcement, fire departments, and first responders to protect those in need of help, while, at times attack those who would do us harm. 

I cannot imagine life without a dog. As I’ve frequently written, my English Bulldog is usually glued to my side inside the home, (especially when it involves me cooking).  

Dogs’ trainability, courageousness, and loyalty to their human companions make them great teammates in our military, police, and first responders. Dogs have been used by armies for thousands of years. Greeks and Romans used dogs as sentries or scouting patrols, with the earliest recorded use of dogs being around 600BC. 

The military working dogs are incredible teammates. They saved countless lives of troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and several other places. They risk their lives to protect the lives of our troops who go in harm’s way. 

Police and first responders have largely adopted dogs that provide a variety of roles including drug and explosives detection, location of enemies or suspects, attack, and fire investigation among others.  

Hero Dogs’ Season 4 is as much must-see television as the first three seasons were. Hosted this season by Emily Compagno, it highlights some of the best of military, police, and fire department canines. These dogs are truly some of the best teammates we could ever hope for.  

The first dog highlighted this season was Hansel a pit bull that was in danger of being euthanized when he was saved and put in a training program to become an arson investigator in Ontario. The lawmakers of Ontario had outlawed pit bulls and Hansel was just a seven-week-old puppy that had been born into a dogfighting ring when the police raided the facility. 

He was given a last-minute reprieve and was placed in the training for the fire department. They had never had a pit bull as part of their working dogs before but Hansel quickly proved his worth and helped take down a team of arsonists who were operating on the east coast of the U.S. and Canada. 

He also became a local favorite with the population, especially the school-age children as Hansel and his handler frequently visit schools as part of fire prevention activities. Hansel has disproven the myth that all pit bulls are aggressive and dangerous and has become a trusted and proven member of the Millville Fire Department.  

He Charged Without Hesitation

Layka was a military working dog with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. As troops were moving into an area searching for high-value targets, an overhead drone showed six insurgents armed with AK-47s moving into a compound. An Apache helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the compound but the insurgents were far from done. 

Without hesitation, Layka charged into the darkened room and despite being shot four times, refused to let go of an insurgent until a soldier entered and took the fighter out. Layka’s right foreleg was hanging on by just some muscle and sinew. 

His leg was amputated and his recovery back in Texas took months. When his handler redeployed back home, he contacted the base and arranged to adopt Layka. Authorities were worried about Layka’s aggressiveness becoming an issue for the family. But they needn’t have worried. Layka, despite the loss of one of his legs, is a trusted, loved member of the family and still loves to chase the ball. 

The last two police dogs, Shep and Vise have similar stories. They protected their handlers and other officers while taking down dangerous suspects. Vise went into a closet taking down a suspect with a knife. The suspect stabbed the dog four times in the head and neck. He was able to recover and return to his duties. 

We encourage all our SOFREP to check out not just the Hero Dog series but all of the great shows on Fox Nation. Like before, I’m going to rewatch some of the older episodes as my own Bulldog snores away by my side… despite my pleas for her to watch and take copious amounts of notes.

“If I could be half the person my dog is, I’d be twice the human I am.” – Will Rogers. 

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