K9 Veterans Day: Special Forces Handler & Rico's Combat Bond

deployed a couple times together to Iraq and then actually we fell from a helicopter together. I would say for a stressful situation that was one of them. Master Sergeant Smith retired out of 5th Special Forces Group. This is Rico. Rico is a retired sergeant major. He retired whenever I was an E-8 and they always retire one rank ahead of us so he retired as a sergeant major. In the unit I was in in 5th Special Forces Group I kind of worked my way up you know and then I wasn't an E-8 so I couldn't be a team sergeant yet and they asked me they're like hey man do you want to be our dog handler and I was like yeah if I can stay on the team I will operate a dog for the team and so I went and did some training at Von Lick Kennels in northern Indiana. I showed up down to the kennels then I was given a dog. That dog was what we call a retread. Somebody had already trained the dog and messed with him. My dog didn't work out so right in the middle of the course they switched dogs which I was like oh I'm not gonna pass this course you know I got a new dog I didn't know. No one really wanted Rico because he was such a circus dog. He could jump you know you'd bring him out of the kennel he would jump on you and stuff and a lot of people were fearful of it. Me being around dogs I would I saw that as an opportunity and then these guys are just jam packed energy I can't put it I mean if you could take energy and wrap it in fur and give it teeth you got a Malinois. Rico was my first trainable dog where I actually went through the course with him and then started what we call the pipeline which is a number of training sessions in a row we call it the pipeline and that gets you ready for your first deployment. It takes quite some time for a dog to actually bond with you you just don't pick him up and like hey let's go do some military stuff. It doesn't really work like that it takes some some molding and getting to know one another. I tried to train what he naturally did on his own into a military application. After I came back from there I got actually reassigned to the kennel so I came out of the team aspect and all I did was focus on the dogs and anytime we had to deploy I was assigned they knew that they were getting me. Usually it takes one stressful situation and then the dog sees hey this guy's here to help me and then you just build off that and then actually we fell from a helicopter together. I would say for a stressful situation that was one of them. We were doing fast roping and we had a new guy he was an attachment he wasn't an sf guy he was attached guy he really didn't know how the mechanism worked that went on the rope and he actually hit the release assembly on the descending mechanism and so whenever I hooked into it and spun out I had no control I had no resistance on the rope so we just fell. It was about 35 feet I fell from the helicopter and lo and behold we're a team and he was he was tethered to me so out he came. We fell bounced once I got up shook him like a briefcase he looked at me and he goes are you serious and I was like yeah bro let's do this. These dogs are resilient they're very tough I picked him up shook him once to ensure that he didn't have a broken bone or he wasn't bleeding and then he didn't bite me or anything he was just like hey I can't believe that happened I got me neither bro let's do this. We try to prevent the dogs getting hurt at all costs because this is our you know it's just like you wouldn't lose a weapon on purpose you know so I wouldn't let a dog get hurt on purpose or put him in a situation where I think he's going to get hurt. You know stressful situations dangerous situations gunfire and stuff like that that's just part of the job so we're going to put them in anything that I'm putting myself in I'm going to put him in there. I will say as far as breaching door explosives different stuff like that this guy has been in the mix you know man one man two man three my canine he's that close to the breach and so he's been exposed to a lot of explosions gunfire the most dangerous in fifth special forces group being in a cqb unit would be the door explosions so whenever we're breaching we take a small amount of explosives we put it on the door we come back to the minimum safe distance initiate the explosive and the dog is like goes in I mean immediately he's going in so he's within 12-15 feet of that explosive. On the medical side these dogs get taken care of just like a soldier would they're getting eye exams ear exams bone exams annually if not bi-annually and then the handler is doing dailies so what you're going to do you bring him in front and the first thing I do is bring him in close while I'm rubbing on him I'm gonna sniff these ears man I'm smelling to make sure they smell normal they don't have a funky infectious smell or anything I'm just kind of running my hands he'll let you know he'll kind of jerk at something sore you know I'm running through the tail let him over through here belly hey belly come on yeah good boy I tell him to get on his belly and I check him out I'm looking on the inside be sure he ain't cut be sure he ain't got no ticks or anything on him I look he's been outside I look at his teeth be sure none of them broken you know they don't have any calcium or anything built up on them I take a look at his eyes get real passionate with him what are you doing bro you know look at his eyes and stuff just look him all over real good then once he's once I do that he's kind of chill get back in your bed yeah yeah bro yeah bro he does have some issues man he's because obviously he's been in there so his left ear sometimes whenever the pressure gets just like if you have your allergies or whatever if pressure gets too high or something like that this left ear will droop he's probably got some nerve damage in there from being close to the breach and stuff the overpressure you know a lot of people think all the explosions happening that's the dangerous part it is if you're on the other side of it but you got to understand as an assaulter I'm receiving that overpressure five to six times daily you know so we came over one night we came over this wall going through the dark being extra quiet you know you know bad guys can hear you and so I ascend over the wall lower my canine to the bro hemes you know feeling all good about it get over there and then I get over and then when I turn around after you know descending around this wall I'm like bro we are not safe right here because we gotta go we gotta go you know so what do I do with the canine I just pick him up and use my body to block the percussion of the explosive you know coming through there and just boom and then I'm just handing him off and just going go do what you do bro when I first retired Rico he was still a very much working dog he just had a breathing issue and so he still had that go that drive so how can I redirect that drive to be beneficial to him and it was with the canine olympics so we went to the canine olympics and he absolutely crushed it and really proud of him I would say for a operating canine and a handler paperwork is minimum you're because they kind of know hey it's your dog you've got exposure to you know what you're getting into when you accept this dog but as I have to do say for legal reasons in the military they do sign a waiver and they have to get evaluated so your average person can't go rehome a dog that has been through a certain situation until we evaluate that person to see if it's going to be a good fit we'll bring them in let them see hey this dog's rambunctious do you like this dog and then kind of see how they fit and they fit good then yes we want to send him to a good home because these dudes work for us you know they put their life on the line just like we do so we want to ensure that their remaining years isn't stressful it's a good time and it's the best for the dog Rico's such a good dog he passed with flying colors and they're like all right man you can take him home the powers to be immediately after I became the kennel master of fifth group and after becoming the kennel master well it's take your dog to work every day and so I was bringing him in but I was still going to work and then I slowly backed it off where he wasn't going to work and he just chilled at the house so with that being said I could not stop working his mind the worst thing you can do for a Malinois is neglect his mind because they are such smart dogs so I would do little tasks around the house like sit him over here put a tennis ball over here make him watch it for a little bit you know and do like exercises like that so he's still in his brain he's still doing something functional as far as work but he's not putting himself at danger as far as looking for bombs or anything like that and you don't want to kind of be like okay he's a dog he's retired he's just a dog because he's not you know he's got a lot of experience he's got a lot of stress you know he's he's working through his stress as well I mean he loves to bite you know he was a very good bite dog and so I kind of took that out of his life you know I don't want an aggressive dog at my house as far as like PTSD and anxiety and stuff like that I always lean toward a dog more than I would any psychiatrist or therapist or anything like that because they kind of let you figure it out on your own you know and if I mean if you need those things by all means go to them but a canine will help you through it just letting you know that there's someone there always I don't regret doing any kind of canine work it's been rewarding 100% of the time I feel very lucky by being able to have this guy I mean look at him come on bro