ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1580629
This article is part of the Research TopicWelfare, Behavior, and Sensory Science of Working AnimalsView all 8 articles
United States military working dogs from 2019 -2021: factors influencing duration of service life
Provisionally accepted
Dakota Discepolo1*
Brian D. Farr2
Desiree Broach2Andrea Henderson2Angelina Gerardo2Jessie Dyer2
Eric Best3- 1Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, United States
- 2Holland Military Working Dog Veterinary Hospital, Lackland AFB, Texas, United States
- 3University at Albany, Albany, New York, United States
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Military working dogs (MWDs) are a vital resource maintained by the United States Department of Defense (DoD). Despite the known decline in their performance with age which leads to eventual service discharge, little to no work has examined factors which impact the duration of their working life. The presented study aimed to address this gap by examining the record review on MWDs who were discharged from service in fiscal years 2019 through 2021. Data was collected on 1,150 MWDs for which adequate information was available for service life to be calculated. Of these MWDs, 918 operational service was able to be calculated. ANOVA analysis comparing means resulted in significant differences of mean overall service with main effects of breed (p = 0.0252), outcome (p = 0.0004), service discharge category (p < 0.0001), and subpopulation (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference by procurement goal (p = 0.398). There was also a significant interaction of mean service life with discharge category and subpopulation (p = 0.0002). Means of operational service life also differed significantly by variables of interest, breed (p = 0.0127), outcome (p = 0.0006), procurement goal (p = 0.0300), and category (p < 0.0001). These findings suggest that the duration of MWDs' service life, both overall and operational, is influenced by multiple factors. These significant factors may contribute to undue loss in service which should be addressed in future research to develop mitigation strategies.
Keywords: Military Working Dog1, Service Discharge2, Working Dog3, Dog Population4, Service Life5
Received: 20 Feb 2025; Accepted: 23 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Discepolo, Farr, Broach, Henderson, Gerardo, Dyer and Best. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dakota Discepolo, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, United States
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