Thursday, May 05, 2011

Bad-ass Good Boy! of the day:


The dogs that work with forces like Navy SEALs have their canine teeth (their four fangs) capped to prevent or repair the damage that can be done to a working dog's teeth. Those canines wear down fast, especially when you're training a critter to do things like bite body armor.

So they get their fangs capped. With titanium or stainless steel. Gold and amalgams aren't strong enough to withstand the bite force of a big dog.

Who's a good boy with beautiful white teefies? Who's a gooood boy? Who is? You are!

(I, for one, welcome our titanium-toothed canine overlords. I hope Kong has a toy for this.)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Iz sooooooo cutes!

Pita said...

I did not know they did th at for the dogs, but it makes perfect sense to me. Love the soldier pups and the police pups!

Brian said...

It's a cool story, and the dogs really are badasses, but unfortunately the bit about metal fangs is not true. See this link:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/no-navy-seal-dogs-dont-have-titanium-teeth/

Silliyak said...

I saw a video where one of the dogs was "jumping" out of a plane in the arms of his handler. I'm guessing that he felt pretty cool.

Jo said...

Scrub Ninja: Hey! I didn't see you there! (see what I did?) Note that I said *capped*. I read that same Wired article.

xoxoJo (who really wants some capped shiny teeth now. Maybe with pretty flowers on them.)

Anonymous said...

Twenty years ago I was a 91T (veterinary technician) in the army. I did, in fact, know one dog who had titanium caps - I was told this was because his canine teeth had cracked and worn down over the years. If I remember correctly, he tended to chew on chain link fences when bored. He was an older fellow when I made his aquaintance, a very sweet boy who loved the ladies:), though he was quite formidible when working. I still miss him.

I'm now a nursing student 2 weeks away from pinning. Love your blog, Jo, God Bless.

Brian said...

Oops. Sorry about that.

I guess this shows how good my reading comprehension is at three in the morning.

Mae said...

Good ol' boy being insured. Good doggy