Poodles Against Hitler: Dogs for Defense for World War II

When World War II began, the United States military had no plan for using dogs for defense. This was in spite of the example set by European countries that employed trained military dogs to great effect during World War I.

The American wake-up call for better defense measures came on December 7, 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both military leadership and an anxious public realized the country was woefully under-prepared. The nation was thrust into a grueling two-front conflict spanning the Atlantic and Pacific, and an effort to fortify the home front became paramount.

People active in the canine world had long recognized the abilities of many breeds of dogs and knew that in wartime they could be well utilized. Alene Stern Erlanger (1894-1969), a well-known poodle breeder, saw the national crisis unfolding and knew she could do something to help.

Poodle Breeder Leads Campaign

 As owner of Pillicoc Kennels in Elberon, New Jersey, Erlanger knew many in the dog world. She was friendly with the administrators of the American Kennel Club, an organization that would be very helpful in the long run, but her first mission was to galvanize the public.

The military had very few dogs at their disposal. Sled dogs were regularly used by the Army in Alaska, but other than those animals, the military had access to only about one hundred dogs.

Erlanger’s plan was an “out of the box” idea. She wanted families to donate their dogs to the war cause. The country was at risk; men (and a few women) were enlisting; it seemed only logical to Erlanger that people might be willing to give up their pets to help the nation.

One of Erlanger’s first phone calls was to Arthur Kilbon, a writer with the popular newspaper, The New York Sun. Kilbon frequently wrote about dogs. In her follow-up letter to him, Erlanger explained: “The dog must play a game in this thing. Other countries have used dogs in their Armies for years and ours has not. Just think what dogs can do guarding forts, munition plants, and other such places.”

The public response to articles by Kilbon and others was positive. As husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons went off to war, families understood the importance of what was happening. Americans were alarmed by the attack on Pearl Harbor. There was also great fear there might be other attacks on the continental United States. When Americans read about donating their pets to the war cause, many families complied.  (Also see “The Government Asked for Pets for Defense in the 1940s.”)

Forming Dogs for Defense

The next thing Erlanger needed was cooperation from the American Kennel Club, which gave both verbal and financial support to what she soon began calling Dogs for Defense.

The next person Erlanger needed was a capable and well-respected dog trainer. Henry Stoecker (1903-1998), an immigrant from Germany whose family trained dogs for military and police work, arrived in the United States looking for work. In 1936, Erlanger had hired him for her kennels. By the early 1940s, she knew him well from his work with her own dogs. She knew she had the perfect trainer.

Stoecker knew that successful training required pairing dogs with the men with whom they would work. The stronger the team, the better the result. Since Stoecker was still based at Pillicoc Kennels when the program began, military police in the New York/New Jersey area were among the first to attend classes and learn to work with the dogs.

Erlanger placed nine of her poodles in this first class of dogs to be trained. (Her champion dog, Rumpelstiltskin, did not serve as he was deemed too temperamental.

“The men were initially skeptical of the more uncommon breeds (including poodles) but they soon learned that even such ‘Park Avenue’ pets were he-men at heart,” reported The Saturday Evening Post (September 5, 1942).

Establishing the System

An intake center was established in Newton, Massachusetts, and a training center was set up in nearby Dedham. Dogs for Defense was optimistic in their promise to the government, saying they should be able to donate 25,000 dogs to the Army.  

The first dogs that were trained were placed stateside and performed sentry duty for private companies that manufactured war supplies. While sentry work doesn’t seem as valiant as a battlefield assignment, it was actually vitally important in the early days of the war. 

In addition to the attack on Pearl Harbor, two groups of German spies were captured within the United States. (One group entered the U.S. in Florida…another came into the country on Long Island.)

Companies and the citizenry were fearful of what could happen next.

Soon a Military Base

Within a few weeks of the program’s start, Erlanger was getting calls from military bases that wanted to try the dogs for sentry work. She soon determined that the dogs were well enough trained that she presented eight show dogs to Brigadier General Phillip S. Gage, who was in charge of harbor defenses of Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  The dogs on this assignment were three black poodles, two Dalmatians, an Airedale, a German shepherd and an Afghan hound.

Use of Poodles

While poodles were instrumental in getting the Dogs for Defense program launched, those running the program soon saw that despite their intelligence poodles weren’t that appropriate for use on the battlefields or overseas. 

“This breed has unusual ability to learn and retain and keen senses. A drawback is a rapidly-growing coat. The dogs never shed, and the coat requires constant cutting to prevent its becoming matted,” writes the author of The Poodle History Project.   

Program Grew

The public response to the program was impressive. About 40,000 dogs were brought in for initial screening; 18,000 of those were accepted for training, and of those, 10,368 dogs were placed into active military service. They served as sentries domestically and abroad and worked as scouts, messengers, and mine detectors overseas.

As Dogs for Defense grew, recruiting more animals, the Quartermaster Corps took on more of the training as well as the plans for deployment. This unit became known as the U.S. Army K-9 Corps.

One of the big surprises of the program was the fact that Dogs for Defense succeeded with dogs in the Pacific Theater. Initially, it was thought that the deep undergrowth in the South Pacific would make it too difficult for dogs and their handlers, but dog trainers soon found that Dobermans were perfect for that type of work, and the dogs were instrumental in saving lives.

After the War

From the beginning, the hope was that after the war, the dogs could be “demilitarized” to return to their homes. Just as soldiers struggle with the aftereffects of war, so, too, do dogs. Young Marine Corps officer and veterinarian William W. Putney implemented a “de-sensitization” program for all the military dogs returning to the United States. Dr. Putney knew that there needed to be a special program to help them become accustomed to life with families and in the public.

The retraining effort worked. Over 3,000 surviving war dogs were returned to their original civilian owners or adopted by their military handlers, with over 85% successfully reintegrating into normal family homes. (Read about Chips: First War Dog Sent Overseas, and Lucky: The Family Pet and his return to his family.) 

Erlanger’s Contributions

Throughout the war, Alene Erlanger served as a civilian consultant to the Quartermaster General, 1942-45. She laid the groundwork for the K-9 corps, wrote training manuals, and supervised dog training programs. She was awarded the “Exceptional Civilian Service Award” by the government in 1945.

In her private life, Erlanger continued to be a well-respected dog show judge, and she wrote Pet Poodle, a manual (1954). She and her husband owned Woodside Stables as well as a large aviary. She was also treasurer of the International Council on Bird Preservation and active in other conservation groups.

Dogs for Defense Continues

As for the Dogs for Defense, it was extraordinarily successful and has continued to train and send dogs to all parts of the world. The unit itself is now known as the Department of Defense Military Working Dog (MWD) Program and is an important part of the U.S. military.

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