"Did you think that you were deserving of this dog?"

December 20, 2018 9:08 PM

It was late—an indistinguishable, bleary-eyed hour. The lamps in the living room glowed against the black spring night. In front of me was a large dog, snapping his jaws so hard that his teeth gave a loud clack with each bark. His eyes were locked on me, desperate for the toy I was holding. But he wasn’t playing—he was freaking out.

Rebecca Frankel, author of War Dogs: Tales of Canine Heroism, History, and Love, relates her experiences with Dyngo, a retired war dog she took in.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (13 comments total)

This was really educational, as I just learned a word for what my dog does - “flank sucking.” On the other hand, I really wish she explained how she got from point A to point B. How did she acclimatize the dog?
posted by corb at 9:17 PM on December 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is a heartwarming story, but whenever I hear or read about military dogs, I just think one thing: We shouldn't be doing this to dogs in the first place. We break them, put them through a lot of stress, teach them aggression and behaviors that are not appropriate for coexisting with civilians or other dogs, and then the solution is to adopt them out to people who may or may not have any idea of what it'll take to fix this broken dog.

In this case it finally worked out well, and I'm happy for them, but the solution here is really to not fuck up dogs like this.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:24 PM on December 20, 2018 [24 favorites]

I’m going to lay money on that dog being on Prozac. Which is fine, my dog is on Prozac, but if he is then she should say so instead of just “one day Dyngo was a normal dog!”
posted by winna at 3:46 AM on December 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Prozac? Seriously? Like, people Prozac?
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:33 AM on December 21, 2018

Well, holy crap. Something new every day, &c.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:34 AM on December 21, 2018

Yeah. Put my cat on a people antidepressant for a while.
posted by wotsac at 4:38 AM on December 21, 2018

Our clinically diagnosed OCD and anxiety disorder dog (history of abuse with multiple returns to the shelter) takes paxil and trazadone.

He’s the sweetest boy though when the loops in his little brain can stop.
posted by hwyengr at 4:46 AM on December 21, 2018 [8 favorites]

My dog was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and he's on gabapentin and buspirone.
posted by Automocar at 6:42 AM on December 21, 2018

Yes, Prozac is a godsend for dogs with separation anxiety or other issues that require a lot of work to address. Dogs have feelings, too, and just like people if those feelings are too much for them to manage they can struggle.

It’s very inexpensive but just like with people it works best with additional non-pharma management like training, environmental enrichment and loving support.
posted by winna at 7:27 AM on December 21, 2018 [6 favorites]

I can't help but think that dog is suffering from PTSD and, as winna suggested, is on some kind of medication for it. Interesting article, but the flash forward from Things All Bad to Things All Good with no information about what went on in between is deeply annoying.
posted by carmicha at 8:13 AM on December 21, 2018 [5 favorites]

It sounds like he mostly just got old and calmed down. Malinois are, fundamentally, insane dogs that cannot stop moving and live for toys(and biting things). Follow some Malinois Facebook groups if you want to get a window into the breed.

I’m pretty surprised that they would be willing to adopt out a war dog malinois to someone who hadn’t had previous experience with the breed.
posted by rockindata at 10:07 AM on December 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yeah, adopting a dog with that kind of training to someone who wasn’t apparently an experienced dog handler raised my eyebrows, too.
posted by winna at 10:23 AM on December 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is a great ending to a great story. I admire those who train these animals, and I have tremendous respect for the dogs who are successfully trained to literally keep these soldiers alive. I grew up with dogs that we used as tools to assist us, but these dogs go far beyond what I ever used my animals for.
posted by bradth27 at 10:55 AM on December 21, 2018