Sailors sit with a dog and two goats on board a ship.
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Dogs have been a staple on seafaring vessels for thousands of years.The canine companions were first given official US Navy duties during World War II.Scot Christenson, author of ‘Dogs in the Navy,’ spoke to Business Insider about their history.
Man’s best friend will follow him anywhere — even across the vast oceans.
Dogs had long been a staple on seafaring vessels even before the US Navy made them part of the official crew during World War II.
Decades later, many dogs continue to serve in military.
Scot Christenson, director of communications for the US Naval Institute and author of the new book “Dogs in the Navy,” spoke to Business Insider about the longstanding canine tradition.
U.S. Naval Institute
Dogs have been joining humans on boats for thousands of years, Christenson said, citing Egyptian tomb paintings and older hieroglyphics that depict the animals on boats.
These canines originally accompanied their owners on voyages as mere companions, but were later trained to be contributing members of a ship’s community.
Sailors trained their dogs to retrieve fishing nets and herd fish into pens in rivers, Christenson said. The animals also provided protection for people sailing to unfamiliar shores, as dogs could detect potential danger in the bushes and were dependable hunters.
The animals also shared pest control duties with seafaring cats on board, according to Christenson, who wrote a book on cats in the Navy earlier this year.
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Terriers were bred to be fearsome rat catchers — a necessary task to stave off disease on board a ship.
In many ways, terriers were more dependable rodent hunters than their feline counterparts because cats had a tendency to be temperamental and moody, Christenson said.
“They could be feeling lazy or maybe they weren’t feeling hungry,” he said of cats. “Whereas, terriers are unrelenting and very efficient at getting rats.”
Some dogs were also bred to be lifesavers, trained to dive into the water if a sailor went overboard.
But not all dog breeds were successful. The Russian Navy tried to breed water dogs a century ago, but the animals were too aggressive and even attempted to attack and drown sailors in the water, Christenson said.
U.S. Naval Institute
For the first 150 or so years of the Navy, dogs simply served as the unofficial mascot of the military branch (which is formally represented by a goat).
The Navy always recognized dogs’ importance to boat crews, Christenson said. The animals helped reduce sailors’ blood pressure, leading to lower levels of anxiety and boosted morale on board.
The animals were even trained to extend their paw and shake hands with visitors when Navy boats docked in foreign ports, he added.
U.S. Naval Institute
The Navy started a program during World War II that encouraged citizens to donate their well-trained dogs to the war cause, Christenson said.
Several other countries already had official dog programs within their navies before the US started its own.
The US program was implemented after German saboteurs came ashore US land and caused a panic, Christenson said. The Coast Guard responded by training dogs to patrol the shoreline and ward off intruders, eventually giving these dogs to the Navy and the Marines to serve a variety of official tasks.
Military dogs were used to carry mail and ammunition, as well as detect mines across Europe, according to Christenson.
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“The US Navy was the envy of other navies because the sailors were so well-fed,” Christenson said. “But no sailor ate better than the ship’s dog.”
Canines on board Navy ships were regularly rewarded with a nightly steak, as well as extra bones, Christenson said.
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Curious canines would sometimes go AWOL, running off and disappearing at port, Christenson said.
Other disobedient dogs might fall asleep on watch or get so excited by the smell of land that they dove into the water before the boat had reached shore.
Naughty dogs would be punished by having their bone ration reduced and being restricted to the ship, according to Christenson.
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It was up to a ship’s captain whether dogs were allowed on board, Christenson said.
Captains had to draw a line to stop sailors from bringing every stray on board.
This encouraged some sailors to get creative, Christenson said, citing a story of a group of men who brought a dog on board and lied to their captain, telling him they had named the stray after him.
Flattered, the captain allowed the sailors to keep the dog — whom they had actually named Scrappy.
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Both dogs and cats were vital forms of pest control on board.
Several ships employed both pets, Christenson said, describing several photos from the time period that show cat and dog working side-by-side on deck.
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While cats tend to be loyal to a specific territory — such as one particular ship — dogs are more often loyal to people, making them much-loved companions among most men onboard, Christenson said.
Some sailors even brought their own dogs on board, he added. The animals helped bond the entire crew.
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Not a lot is definitively known about what happened to World War II Navy dogs after their voyages, Christenson said. It’s assumed many sailors brought the animals home with them after the war was over.
But the donation program that led to a boom in Navy dogs during World War II also meant that the animals were counted as government surplus when the conflict was over — meaning they legally had to be put up for auction instead of being returned to their owners or sailors, Christenson said.
It wasn’t until the year 2000, that then President Bill Clinton signed a bill allowing service dogs to be adopted by their handlers.
U.S. Naval Institute
The Marines and Navy Seals most often employ the use of canine helpers in the modern age, Christenson said.
But Navy boats have recently started using a new type of dog — robotic dogs — to perimeter ships and bases.