Book Review: Sergeant Rex (military working dog, dog-human bond)

Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and his Military Working Dog, by Mike Dowling (Atria Books, 2012, $26, 304 pp) 

A breath-taking book, Sergeant Rex will keep you reading from author Mike Dowling's deployment to why he joined the Marines, back to this K9 team in Iraq and again to his growing up in California - switches that are seamless and just right.

While deployed, a handler and his dog go everywhere together: to the chow hall even. They are never separated so the bond between them only strengthens as it must in order for trust to develop and for the team to be ready to go on a moment's notice. And to survive.

What is a Marine? Who is a Marine?

They say when you process out of the Army (or Air Force or . . .) that you are a civilian but that "once a Marine, always a Marine." A marine is an infantryman first and always. Sergeant Rex (the book) gives the beginning of the Rifleman's Creed as well as the entire (anonymous) poem "Guardians of the Night." Known as the toughest of the military branches, the Marines are a step above all the rest and Dowling makes that evident. Dowling, however, signed up almost on the spur of the moment and joined the Marines not knowing what his job would be. Luck would have it that he was in the right place at the right time and intelligent enough to be selected as an MP with the specialty of dog handler.

Dowling with his best-of-the-best canines takes us through their training stateside and on to several months as an indispensable team in 2004: always the 'point man' (and dog) though the dog's nose does most of the work. You will learn more about that incredible canine nose and how Rex gives an alert when he has found an IED (improvised explosive device) of some sort, or a cache of weapons.

This reviewer can vouch for the reality of Dowling's account although she was in Afghanistan: daily life is much the same - even the weather. The reader understands how heat can sap one to need water poured over an over-heated Marine.

Dowling and Rex became favorites of their base - favorites with the Marines, that is. Not with the Iraqis. The team was so successful in saving lives by identifying buried weapons caches and IEDs that they went on most of the missions during their half-year tour. And the author does not spare the danger or the near misses or even the close explosions from RPGs or mortars. And fear is constant. And packs of wild dogs, too!

The Bond

Dowling and Rex become as close as two beings can ever become. I love how the author put words into Rex' mouth that so succinctly described what the dog (and presumably a person) was thinking. And Rex was even funny sometimes but the take-away lesson is how well they did their job: both were asked time and time again to go outside the wire on missions because the other units knew that they would be better protected with Rex leading the way.

What's Missing

I would have included a map and perhaps a short glossary (even I was not sure of the word, kit. I assumed it meant equipment.) And I would have capitalized Marine. This reviewer is also a dog trainer and was disappointed in how the dogs were trained, using traditional methods along with positive-reinforcement (the former is not necessary) but such a mixed method can be successful with rock-steady confident dogs.

All in all, a very, very good book!

And did you know that a MW (military working dog) is always of a higher rank than his handler?