Marine war dogs up for adoption

Marine Corps Times:

Officials with the Marine Corps military working dog program are looking to find homes for all the service’s improvised explosive device-sniffing dogs as the Corps’ requirement for these highly trained animals draws to a close.

The Marines developed a capability for IED detection dogs, or IDDs, in response to an urgent need in 2004, when hidden explosives emerged as a major threat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike other Marine military working dogs, that trained and deploy with military police handlers, IDDs were trained to deploy with infantrymen and Marines in other combat specialties, who would complete a lean five-week training program with their assigned dog before heading downrange.

At peak, the Corps had some 650 IDDs downrange and in various training facilities stateside, and the dogs stayed busy: By 2010, most of the Marine battalions deploying to war zones had IDDs attached to them.

Today, however, there are only about 100 of the dogs remaining stateside in training, and some 30 downrange. Of those 100, nearly 50 are awaiting disposition — adoption out of the program to a federal or other law enforcement agency or to a private individual. By the first quarter of 2015, all of the remaining IDDs will be gone, said Bill Childress, head of the Marines’ MWD program.
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Meanwhile, Childress said he is advertising with law enforcement agencies to try to find new work for the remaining IDDs. So far, he said, 200 of the dogs have found new work at the joint Defense Department military working dog training facility at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, while another 150 or 200 have been adopted by regional police departments and law enforcement agencies.

Private individuals can also apply to adopt a dog, though officials with the MWD program often make judgment calls on whether a household is right for, say, a Belgian malinois trained in aggression tactics. Childress said the troops who work with the dogs get the first opportunity to take them home for good.
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I think retrievers would make the best adoptions for those around kids.  They are smart and protective without being aggressive.  While I think they give preferences to wounded handlers, if I were in the market for a dog, I would certainly explore this opportunity.