German shepherd war dog history: from WWI rescue to WWII service

Part 1

German shepherds in World War I

During World War I, the German Imperial Army kept kennels that bred German shepherds for guard duty. This kennel, near the village of Flirey, lay in the Lorraine region of eastern France, then under German control. In September 1918, American forces advanced through the area during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, and the kennel was left in ruins. If your own dog has a strong guarding streak, that trait has roots stretching back to kennels like this one.

Part 2

Rin Tin Tin and the war dogs who came home

On September 15, 1918, an American soldier named Lee Duncan searched the wrecked kennel to see whether the site could serve as an airfield. He found a starving German shepherd mother with a litter of five newborn puppies whose eyes had not yet opened. Duncan kept two of the puppies, a male and a female, and named them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette after small good-luck charms French children gave to American soldiers.

Duncan brought the puppy home to the United States after the war and trained him there. Rin Tin Tin went on to appear in 27 Hollywood films, gaining worldwide fame. His fame helped make German shepherds more popular as family dogs. If you share your home with a German shepherd today, some of that popularity traces back to this one rescued puppy. A German shepherd named Rin Tin Tin III, said to be his grandson, later helped promote the military use of dogs during World War II.

Part 3

World War II and the Dogs for Defense program

In 1942, civilians connected to the dog show world established the Dogs for Defense program to recruit family dogs for service. Owners across the country volunteered more than 40,000 pet dogs for the war effort.

• At first, the program accepted only certain purebred dogs.
• It later widened to around 30 breeds and cross-breeds, including German shepherds, Doberman pinschers, boxers, Labrador retrievers, and Saint Bernards.
• By 1944, the list had been narrowed again to just seven breeds.

About 18,000 of the volunteered dogs were sent on to Army training centers for testing. There, they took medical exams and intelligence tests before starting basic obedience training in commands such as sit, stay, and heel. Dogs also learned to respond to hand signals alongside verbal commands. Dogs worked through obstacle courses and were desensitized to rifle and artillery fire. If you have ever taught your dog a hand signal for quiet, you already understand the basic idea behind this training.

Once trained, dogs were assigned jobs such as scout, sentry, or messenger duty. Messenger dogs carried information and supplies, or helped lay communication wire between outposts, while other dogs helped find wounded soldiers. Fifteen war dog platoons were organized, each built around 18 scout dogs and 16 messenger dogs alongside their handlers. In total, 10,368 dogs went into active service, split between the Army and the Coast Guard, and their hearing and sense of smell made them especially useful in the thick jungles of the Pacific.

Part 4

From battlefield to postwar life

One officer, Lieutenant William Putney, pushed to retrain the dogs for civilian life rather than have them euthanized. One officer, Lieutenant William Putney, refused to sign a single dog's death certificate until he was certain every effort had been made to retrain it. Of 559 Marine war dogs still alive at the end of the war, 540 were adopted out or stayed with their handlers.

Of the 19 dogs not returned to civilian life, 15 were euthanized because of health problems and 4 could not be retrained. Congress passed a law in 1945 allowing handlers to formally adopt the dogs they had worked alongside if the original owners did not want them back. The National War Dog Cemetery on Guam honors 25 dogs killed during the 1944 recapture of the island. If you have ever said goodbye to a dog, you can imagine how hard that bond was to break after months of shared danger.

Part 5

How war service shaped the breed's reputation

Rin Tin Tin's Hollywood career helped make German shepherds popular as family pets. German shepherds were among roughly 30 breeds accepted once Dogs for Defense widened its criteria beyond purebred dogs only.