Page 270 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
School is situated in the twin city of Rawalpindi some 30-minutes’ drive from BHC.
The following week, we were given thirteen dogs and ten students for the duration of the course and began to work on the dogs’ independent prey, hunt and environmental drives, as well as their agility, obedience and fitness. The Pakistan Army has its own breeding programme, which is situated in Murree, 42 miles northwest of Islamabad. When they are eight weeks old, the MWDs are then transported from Murree to the Army Dog Training School, where they are looked after until they reach nine-ten months before they begin training. Most of these dogs will not have undergone any hunt or prey drive tests, so the training team had to work hard and utilize the time they had within the first two-three weeks, before we could conduct the search element of the course. After that, we began room searching, and then progressed to vehicle, route, compound, rummage, exterior and area searching.
During the latter parts of the course disaster struck within the training school. Some of the dogs contracted Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) and, due to the kennels the dogs are housed in, the virus spread like wildfire. There was no segregation or quarantine facilities set up within the school, so none of the dogs were not allowed out from their kennels for a long period of time. With four dogs per kennel, it was only a matter of time before one of our course dogs would be struck with the virus. Unfortunately, this became a reality for one of our dogs, MWD Pasta, who succumbed to the virus two weeks before the end and passed away.
Excluding the CDV, which gave the UK team major disruptions to the MWD training, it turned out to be a successful course. Since the dogs have finished their training eight out of the thirteen have gone onto Operational roles – one was re-classified to Protection and the remaining are waiting to be deployed.
The deployment on HALLEX 19-1, saw a change in personnel with Cpl Kelly Wolstencroft and LCpl Daniel Gregory, both from 102 MWD Sqn, deploying with myself in August. After the week of mandatory RSOI training, we were down to business as usual. We were given thirty-five MWDs to select from and, with no students in attendance until the follow the week, we conducted a week’s selection picking the best dogs with the desired drives for search. We ended up picking fifteen dogs with a total of twelve students for the twelve week course.
During the first two weeks of the course, we were informed that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would be conducting a Royal tour of Pakistan in the latter part of October and that they would visit the new K9 Centre and the UK training team. Still working out of the old training school in Rawalpindi, we had to get
five handlers and five dogs up to the new school two weeks prior to the visit, so they could not only continue their AES training, but run through the rehearsals when called upon. Cpl Wolstencroft spent two weeks training them and their dogs, whilst LCpl Gregory remained at the old school with seven students, and I moved between each school on a daily basis.
On the day of the visit, every handler and dog performed better than expected. The other Instructors and I had a briefing on what to give to the Royals, who seemed loaded with questions and genuinely interested in what we were teaching and achieving in such a small amount of time. After the event, everyone involved in the demonstration came together to have a photo taken with the Royal couple.
Op HALLEX 19-1 was another great success, with some excellent dogs coming through their training in such a short time. With a new Commander in charge, Colonel Tariq, and with the use of the new training school, our training and development of what we teach the PAK MIL can only improve over time. Anyone given the opportunity to deploy on Op HALLEX should seize it. Working in such a diverse country and unique working environment can be very challenging, but if you can succeed here, you can succeed anywhere.25
And so...
At the time of writing, in the wake of COP 26 – the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference held at the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow – the world is more aware than ever of the challenge we face to save our planet. Working together to protect the animals we live alongside is our responsibility and one we cannot afford not to appreciate fully and actively. In the 1960s the RAVC sent personnel across the globe to assist in the protection of endangered animals and the work continues to this day to determine the best training techniques to apply to conservation. That work is ongoing ... and the vision global.
25 Chiron Calling Spring 2020.
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