Now that military dogs are taking on a larger role in fight, they' re also taking on more of the risks that come with going to war, including developing post-traumatic stress disorder.The New York Times reports that more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 deployed military dogs are developing some form of canine PTSD . "It really is difficult, because cace the dog experiences these traumatic explosions, it's the same as the troops," Army Lt.Col. Richard A Vargus, chief of the law enforcement branch at CENTCOM told the Military Times in September."Some dogs move right through it and it doesn't affect them.Some dogs, it takes some retraining, and some dogs just refuse to work." Like humans, military dogs exhibit a range of changes in temperaments  when they develop PTSD.Some become aggressive, others retreat.But because dogs can't express what the problem is, soldiers can be put at risk if their partner simply stops doing his job without warning. "If the dog is trained to find improvised explosives and it looks like it's working, but isn't, it' s not just the dog that' s at risk," Dr.Walter F.Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine at the Daniel E.Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base, told the Times."This is a human health issue as well." And searching for such devices has become a key responsibility for military dogs.Even after spending six years and nearly $ 19 billion on experimenting with innovative ways to detect bombs, the Pentagon admitted in 2010 that its most sophisticated technology was no match for a dog' s nose. "Electronic equipment is great in the laboratory, but out on the battlefield, you can't beat the dogs," Bill Childress, manager of the Marine Corps working dog program told the Los Angeles Times. Just as physicians have yet to find a safe way to treat PTSD among humans, so too are veterinarians weighing a wide range of options when it comes to helping their canine patients But offering dogs the same innovative treatments that their human counterparts get, doesn't guarantee a full recovery.It's a fact that fears once learned are never unlearned. On battlefield military dogs become a key responsibility to   _  .
discover dangerous tombs experience PTSD test their noses treat PTSD