Kinds Of Dogs In USA

Kinds Of Dogs In USA

1. Laika

The all-time most famous dog we know of was Laika, the Soviet space dog. Even though she was the first animal to orbit Earth, her origins were much less fancy.

Laika was a stray dog, living on the streets of Moscow. In 1957 she was picked up along with two other strays for the Soviet space program.

After her training, she was selected as the dog that will board the Sputnik 2 and fly into space.

Things went smoothly at first, but when it came to coming back to Earth, the technology we had back then didn’t include a returning mechanism.

Soviet officials said that Laika was euthanized prior to the oxygen depletion on the sixth day of orbit. It was only revealed in 2002 that the first dog in space actually died only a few hours after launch, due to overheating.

As a tribute to her accomplishments, in 2008 a monument to Laika has been raised near the military research facility where she trained.

2-Hachiko

This Akita Inu pooch lived near the city of Odete, Japan. His story yet again proves how caring and devoted dogs can be.

His owner Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at Tokyo University, was returning home each day via train.

And each day, at the same time, Hachiko would wait for his human at the train station, to greet him and accompany him home. He did this for years, until one day in May 1925, when Hachiko’s owner failed to show up. Unfortunately, he suffered a fatal hemorrhage.

But Hachiko kept returning to Shibuya Station for nine years thereafter, still waiting for his master to return at the exact time the train arrives.

In 1935, the devoted Akita Inu was found dead in the streets of Shibuya.

3-Appollo

Appollo and his partner Peter Davis were members of the New York City Police Department responsible for saving many lives on the dreadful September 11th.

The German shepherd was just one of over 350 search and rescue dogs that day on the Twin Towers site.

They have tirelessly searched for survivors and bodies for more than half-a-day for over a week.

Animal Planet said at the time: “The SAR dogs worked with their handlers up to 16 grueling hours a day, and it became evident that the dogs were nearly as distraught as the human rescuers when there were so few survivors to be found.”

“For the human rescue workers, the lack of survivors made the attacks feel ever more horrific and tragic. For the dogs trained to find survivors, though, it felt like a personal failure.”

Nonetheless, Appollo and his canine colleagues found and rescued a great number of people in the days of the tragedy, and everyone present on ground zero that day will always remember them for their deeds.

4-Lex

Lex is one of those dogs that just won’t leave his master’s side, no matter what happens.

Both him and his handler US Marine Corps Cpl. Dustin J. Lee were in Fallujah, Iraq, when they were in an attack that killed Lee and seriously wounded Lex.

But despite his wounds, Lex wouldn’t leave his partner. He had to be dragged away to be treated by medics.

Lex survived, bas had suffered some devastating injuries that reduced his mobility. This caused Cpl. Lee’s parts, Jerome and Rachel Lee, to appeal to the U.S. military to adopt poor Lex.

Lex became the first active-duty, working military dog to be granted early retirement. Even though he still had over 50 pieces of shrapnel in his body, the now ex-military dog still worked as a therapy dog, visiting military veterans at hospitals and retirement homes.

He was awarded an honorary Purple Heart, along with an Award for Canine Excellence by the American Kennel Club in 2008. Lex died of cancer aged 13 in 2012.

5-Benji

This mixed-breed mutt captured the hearts of TV and film lovers of all ages in 1974. In the movie “Benji,” the tiny canine saved two kidnapped children, and for that he will always be remembered.

The film was written and directed by Joe Camp, and since the first movie, there have been several incarnations on both the large and small screen.

Since no studio in Hollywood wanted any part of the project, Camp had to finance and distribute the film himself. Needless to say, it was a great success.

Benji was originally played by Higgins, a dog from the Burbank Animal Shelter. According to the American Humane Society, his origins started an adopting spree, where over a million dogs got adopted during Benji’s fame days.