
San Antonio, TX - A program which breeds Belgian Malinois to become military working dogs relies on volunteer foster families to socialize and expose them to a variety of environments. The families raise the dogs for about five months before returning them to go through an intensive training program at the Defense Department’s Military Working Dog Breeding Program at Lackland Air Force Base. The idea behind the program is to prepare these future military working dogs for a lifetime of service, exposing them to different situations; some families have children, some have other pets, and some are elderly, giving the dogs a chance to experience 'life'. Bernadine Green, the program’s deputy director, explains that Belgian Malinois are bred and trained to serve alongside other military working dogs, a select group used by DOD and other government agencies for patrol, drug and explosive detection, and in specialized missions both stateside and overseas. She ...









