USE OF DOGS BY SOVIET BORDER TROOPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00046R000300290008-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2013
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: May 6, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/11 :CIA-RDP82-000468000300290008-9
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DSSR
SUB7ECT Uae of Doga By Soviet Border Troops
DATE OF INFORMATION
PLACE ACQUIRED
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOURCE
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTR, 6 May 1854
NO.OF PAGES 3
.REFERENCES
1. Border droops in the U9SR ~aed a good many dogs, to perform various duties.
2. Regardless of the purpose for whioh a dog was to be used, only one breed
of dog was a~~pploy~ in Border Troop units throughout the USSR, namely,
the Garmen Sohaefar gund (Nemetakaya ovoharka). Border Troop~oanine
brReding;and training centers were organized at every border detaohment
and so~nstimsa at border diatriot headquarters.
3. All doge used ian the border troops were referred to as service dogs
(Sluzhebnaya aobaka) and were broken down into throe bsaio groups:
a. Trailing Dogs (Rozyaknaya aobaka)
b. Duty Doge (Storozhevaya aobaka)
c. Watoh Doga (Karaul~naya aobaka)
Lately there had been within the border troops a noticeable tendency
to merge duty and watoh dog functions and to organize instead one
general group o~ line doge (Stroyavyye aobaka).
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/11 :CIA-RDP82-000468000300290008-9
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/11 :CIA-RDP82-000468000300290008-9
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The trailing d?ga ~rere `the beet ones; they were the mc~t intelligent
asxd~ i~e~e giveA ~ advanced traisling. They were quite eapeneive; the
governs~ent price fos" an average trailing dog was 1, 5??-2, X00 rnbls~a .
Each trailing 8?g ~ad.his owl frill-time instructor. Traissing of a
trailing dog usually started at a3a months of -age and,, laa.ted for cne
year. To be qualified as a trailing dog, after havirsg acsnpleted
training, the dog had to meet the following requirementas
a. To detect and follow tracea at leant three or four houra old.
b. To f~"low tracea regardless of the config'aration of the terrain or
charadter of the .soil.
c. To follow tracea for a distance of at leant 12-15 lan.
d. 1"o follow zigzag tracea involving at leant five or aid sharp
turns.
e. To be able to pick, up pars?nal items of the trailed person which had.
',~,cl been discarded or hidden during the Flight.
f. To be able to g~lard an arrested person and to attack him at the
first movement.
g. To possess all features of a vicious and, at the name time,
ecsurageoua dog.
h. To be able to suppress barking.
i. To be able to remain watchful on duty for 12-15 hrs. or as long
as the duty lasted, regardless of whether it was day or night.
~. Not to let anyone other than its instructor come~cloae and not
take food from anyone other than its instructor.
k. To follow and obey all commands of its instructor for which it
was trained. '
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flute ending trailing dogs in the border troops 'here able to follow
.tracea for as far as 34 km. and to discover tracea 12 houra old.
Very good trailing dogs could follow for a di~tance~of 20 1~. and
pick up tracea eight houra old. '
The good ones would follow. tracea 12-15 km. and pick them up 3 .to 4
houra after they were made..
y. A duty d?g had to be able to discover tracea at least 1~-2 houra old,
to remain watchful on duty,~not to bark, and to be both vicious and
brave. (It moat not be afraid of shooting). ,
6. A watch-dog had to be vicious, courageous, watchful and wan to bark'
as noon as it noticed any unusual activity in its vicinity.
7. Every line border zastava in the USSR wan aaaig~ed one trailing dog.
Sometimes in distant and important zaetavy there were two trailing
dogs (and two iA~#~ructvra). In addition to trailing doge,. each line
zastava had two or~three duty dogs and one mr perhaps no watchdog..
Heing the wo~at .group of service doge, the watchdogs were not Favored
by Border?~Troop personnel and there uses a constant effort to get rid
of them for a .duty dog with higher qualificatiorsa. '
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/11 :CIA-RDP82-000468000300290008-9
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/11 :CIA-RDP82-000468000300290008-9
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$. ~everal xaya.to get a trailing dog off the trails
~To deposit in one's tracks strong apices or strong-smelling liquids
.each ae black pepper, snuff, makhorka, carbolic acid, lyaol, oreolin,
or ortxde petroleum.
b. To enter a stream and to follow it for several hundred meters; to
get out on the other bank and to repeat this procedure several times,
in this xay coafuai~ig the dog on the trail.
c. To avoid leaving human traces on sections of the trail by riding on
the banks of animals (horses, donkeys, cows, etc..}.
d. To cover some sections of the trail by riding on the back of another
person xho eventually turns back. .Although theoretioaliy it was
oseible for the trailing dvg to follow the second trail, when and
~,t was discovered, th wan achieved very seldom since by the
ti~e,the second trail was discovered, the searching parties xould
probably have,deatroyed it.
e. To diaaard on the trail from time to time some personal or other
item with some specific, different amella, in order to confuse
the dog.
f. 'To cover apart of the trail by walking on stilts,. By the time the
contlnuation~?!' human traces would be~discovered, to? many other
taraoes xould usually have been made by searching parties at~d the
.dog xomld be confused.
g. Amd finally, to effect the crossing in very hot xeather. It xss
eatablis~ed that in hot weather the beat trailing dog could not
fo11oM traces for-more than five to aeverr kilometers. Hest of ail,
of c?nrss, xas to arosa the border lure before a rain which xould
destroy the specific amella, although the franca in some p],acea
would remain even after the rain.
~8(3R8T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/11 :CIA-RDP82-000468000300290008-9