Fama, the AHBD (Episode 21)

Episode 21

28 of the dog teams left to return to the states and turn their dogs back in to the kennel. These teams had either failed to validate, or taken so long to complete validation that their units were leaving Afghanistan and the dog teams were not needed. It cleared up a lot of space in the tent, which was nice, but it was also a sobering reminder of the challenge that still laid before us. We removed some of the bunks and wall lockers to give ourselves some additional space. It was also liberating to be back to the small group of friends that had been working together for months now. We could let our hair down and be ourselves.

I had quickly claimed a large space in the corner of the tent, using the wall lockers and some blankets to create a private room, allowing Fama free reign of our space while I was there. this helped her to calm down even more when we weren’t working. She could hang out on the bed with daddy and relax, chewing on a Nylabone or Kong to pass the time. The handlers dropped in on each other regularly for company, to play a practical joke, or to ask a question.

Scott popped his head in through the blanket that was serving as a door and dropped to a knee by my bed to inquire about what we were doing for training that evening. Fama , who had been snoozing behind me on the bed, launched over my legs to the floor and grabbed Scott by the shoulder. I grabbed her by the collar, scolded her, and stuffed her into her crate. Scott was wide eyed in fear and shaking after the incident. I apologized, feeling terrible about the behavior of my dog, and tried to help him understand that Fama was just surprised, and possibly felt threatened, so she reacted in defense.

I tried to get him to help me with the issue by working with Fama, but he didn’t feel safe around her. Fama could feel his unease, so she made a game out of messing with Scott and his dog Chatsi. Every time either of them would come close, Fama would bark and lunge, seeming to laugh as they would retreat in fear. Because she kept winning this contest, it was almost impossible for me to stop her behavior. Every time they walked by my room, Fama would “chase them off” by barking, therefore winning, no matter how stern a correction she received afterward. Scott and Chatsi quickly learned to avoid Fama all together, walking with wide berth around us whenever our paths crossed.

The next validation venue was another route clear on a long stretch of paved road with a huge ditch off to the left side. You could park a bus in the ditch and have room to walk around it without getting up on the road. After completing the venue, the handlers were to put up their dogs and come out to watch the remaining dog teams run. Fama and I were going last on this venue, so the rest of the handlers were following along behind us as we conducted the route clear. It was a physically demanding venue, as we had to climb in and out of the steep walled ditch multiple times to perform a thorough search. There were three hides placed on the route, and Fama had just found the second hide with little difficulty.

We had been working off leash, and Fama had just responded to a hide located down in the ditch. After getting her ball, she came racing back to me up on the road to continue the search. I got the ball away from her and sent her down the road, feeling confident about our performance. She ran down the road 25 yards, circled around to the right, ran right back past me, past the trainers, and right into the group of handlers that was observing from 10 yards behind us. At first, I thought she was just returning to the hide she had just found, trying to get her ball the easy way, but I soon realized she was on a different mission. With a sudden squirt of speed, she jumped into the crowd of handlers as they scattered. I was racing to my dog but it happened too fast for me to intervene. Fama had jumped on Scott’s back and taken him to the ground like LT on a quarterback.

I hit her at a sprint, tackling her while spewing a stream of expletives. Fama immediately went submissive, knowing that she was going to lose a fight with me in a bad way. She laid on the ground, looking up at me, waiting to see what I would do. I was at a loss. SFC Shemp was there, and technically it is against the rules to do any physical correction to your dog, especially any type of striking, no matter the circumstance. Fama needed a “Come to Jesus” talking to, but I was afraid of getting in trouble for getting physical with my dog, so I told her to stay, got up, and went to Scott to make sure he was OK.

SFC Shemp exploded in a tirade, berating me for not laying into Fama, essentially letting her get away with being aggressive. I had made the wrong decision by not correcting my dog, and I was afraid it was going to cost me my position as a dog handler.

“That dog is a liability. Somebody is going to get hurt. Winners just can’t control her, and I can’t let a team like that go down range and have a civilian get bit, no matter how good a detection team they are.”

I tried to explain my reasoning behind my failure to correct Fama. “I didn’t know how you would react if I really got on my dog, and I didn’t want to get in trouble for getting physical with her,” I explained.

“He knows how to handle Fama. I have seen it before, and they have come a long way in the last 3 months. I will personally vouch for his abilities as a handler,” said Gary, looking to me. “This won’t happen again, will it Sergeant Winners?”

“I can’t promise anything except that next time, she won’t be smiling afterwards,” I said.

I finished the training venue and put Fama up, feeling like I had let us down. I should have thought about the situation I put her in, with Scott walking behind us, and anticipated the reaction she might have. I could have kept her on the long line or suggested that Scott not follow us on the venue. Now, we were on the RADAR in a bad way, and I had to be careful or we would be finished as a dog team before we ever got to get started. Scott was more fearful than ever around Fama, and she was more cocky. She knew that she had his number and he wasn’t going to do anything about it. Understandably, Scott refused to help me work on the issue. He didn’t want anything to do with Fama.

In the afternoons, I started walking through the busy parts of the FOB, watching her closely for signs of aggression. Every time we walked by a person and she didn’t react, I would praise her and play some tug or give her a Kong. I was careful to stay at a distance where she wouldn’t react in a bad way so she would begin to associate strangers with a toy and praise and not a correction. We worked on this every day and it wasn’t long before she could ignore strangers all together and relax while we were walking. She was still reactive while we were stopped, occasionally barking at a passer by, especially if they were moving quickly. I was committed to helping Fama realize that it was not her job to fight.