By
Staff Sgt. Jessica Switzer
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – It can be a terrifying thing to see a dog streaking toward you across a field, fast and low to the ground, lips peeled back from a mouth filled with huge white teeth. But for the son of an Altoona couple, all he can think about, as the 80-pound animal leaps toward his arm, is making sure the dog gets a good bite.
Marine Corps Sgt. Scott Chirdon, son of Joe and Robin Chirdon of Altoona, Pa., is a military working dog trainer with the U.S. Air Force's 341st Training Squadron, the largest canine training center of its kind in the world.
The Department of Defense Military Working Dog Center has courses that train both new dogs and new 
handlers to work together as sentries and bomb and drug sniffers. The human students spend 11 weeks working with veteran dogs learning how to control and understand their future canine partners. The new dogs work with veteran handlers to learn patrol work and to recognize the scents of drugs and explosives and the behaviors that will tell their handlers they’ve found something.
“We train military working dogs from the ground up,” said Chirdon, a 2001Altoona Area High School graduate. “They go from absolutely nothing to being certified in detection and 
patrol work in about 100 days. Since I am a master military working dog trainer, I am responsible for all the dogs’ training and I also train the handlers how to train the dogs.”
The four-footed students at the center learn to identify the scents of a wide variety of explosives and drugs, many of which are odorless to humans. The dogs also learn how to patrol and are taught “controlled aggression” -- when it is and is not appropriate to bite a human and to let go of someone they have bitten, on command and with no hesitation.
For Chirdon, and others at the center, working with canines is a completely different military experience.
“I enjoy getting paid to play with dogs all day, and the constant interaction with such intelligent animals,” said Chirdon. “Every day is different and always a challenge. It keeps you on your toes.
“I also enjoy supporting the war by training dogs that will be responsible for taking care of thousands of Marines, airmen, soldiers and sailors,” he said.
Human students at the school learn the basics of their future partners including safety procedures, managing health, the gear they will be using, general record keeping for the animals and the principles of behavioral conditioning.
Then they begin to work with the dogs, learning basic obedience commands for the animals, how to control the animals, procedures for patrolling and searching an area and how to perform as a decoy to keep a working dog in top form.
“These dogs are important because of the job they do for our military,” said Chirdon, who has been in the Marine Corps for more than six years. “They clear houses, roads and many other areas for our deployed military men and women.
“Military working dogs are also very smart and, no matter how good technology is, a dog is always better. They also provide a huge psychological deterrent to enemies and stop many potentially bad situations before they even start. Nobody wants to be bit by a dog,” he said.
Chirdon understands that facing ferocious attacks, hammering in constant commands and providing frequent praise will one day pay off with human lives saved on the battlefield.
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