An Australian Labrador sniffer dog returns after being MIA in Afghanistan for 14 months
After being lost in battle, Sabi survived 14 months on her own in Afghanistan.
From the BBC.
Sabi is listed as a Labrador, but she’s very likely a cross– but one that looks a lot like a St. John’s water dog.
In September 2008, the dog was part of a joint Afghan-Australian patrol in the Uruzgan Province. The patrol was ambushed, and nine Australian soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Sabi was MIA.
Because she had been gone so long, it was assumed that she was dead. After all, Afghanistan is a poor country in the midst of a long war. A pet dog from the West would have a hard time surviving there on her own.
She was in such good condition that it appears someone was caring for her.
She still has her retrieving instincts, which BBC reports suggests is something that is trained. In reality, she was probably selected to be a sniffer dog because she had such strong retrieving instincts and prey drive. The dogs are trained to associate the object they like to retrieve most with the scent of some object, and as a result, they will hunt down that scent in hopes of getting that object. It’s really not that different from dogs that associate the scent of pheasants or ducks with the objects they are supposed to retrieve. It’s just in the case of those birds, they naturally have that targeted scent.
Update: The Guardian reports that Taliban fighters actually kept her during these 14 months. She was discovered by an American service member named John recognized the dog as a sniffer dog.
I like the story (that she was reunited with her handler) and the cheese factor is appropriately humorous.
I mean, she was hardly “lost in a desert” – she appears to have been well cared for and treated kindly by, OH MY GOODNESS, the enemy!
The general Afghan population are not ‘the enemy’… the -terrorist groups- in Afghanistan are the enemy. Most likely an average citizen cared for the dog, as there are far more ‘average citizens’ in Afghanistan than there are terrorists.
I’m not denying that they wouldn’t help a dog. It’s just I’m surprised that they would sacrifice their own rather limited resources to care for it.
I guarantee you that lots of dogs in the West that were in the same situation wouldn’t have made it out so well. In Germany and France during the various wars, dog was on the menu.
That portion (OMG, enemy!) of my comment really was meant sarcastically. Being on one side of a war, foe or friend, in no way determines how kind someone is towards another living being. I thought it was a silly thing for the author to point out but added to the “cheese” factor of the article.
Oh yeah.
If I had to bet on a breed most likely to make friends of strangers regardless of culture, it would have to be a Lab. I knew a lady that was absolutely terrified of dogs… except for her neighbor’s black lab, whom she let climb all over her. It was hilarious to see her freak out over a 10-lb Pomeranian, but gush all over an 85-lb Lab.
From the blog of a retired US Navy commander:
http://zenhuber.blogspot.com/2009/11/say-nyet-to-afghanistan.html
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Any assertion that we’re in Af-Pak because of terrorism, or 9/11, is a crock of horse mustard. We’re not even sure whom we’re fighting there.
There are probably fewer than 100 al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, and less than 300 of them in the tribal areas of Pakistan. We and our NATO coolies already have more than 100,000 troops in the theater. The Taliban, who aren’t a threat to our national security, number at best around 25,000. We already have a force advantage—when we count Afghan security forces, of 12 to one. If we give Stan McChrystal the U.S. troops he wants, and plus up Afghan forces to 400,00 as he projects, we’ll end up with an astronomical numeric advantage. And it won’t do a bit of good.
(…)
Okay. I have a background in International Relations, and I have to say that I totally agree.
The Taliban is not Al Qaeda.
Most of them have backward views about women. Some of them like to grow opium poppies.
But they really aren’t going to come over here and blow us up. That’s bin Laden’s thing. And that’s Al Qaeda.
Mixing the two together was what the previous administration did, and I wish this one would have bit more sense.