On March 13, 1942, the Quartermaster Corps of the United States
Army began training dogs for the newly established War Dog
Program, or “K-9 Corps.”Well over a million dogs served on both
sides during World War I, carrying messages along the complex
network of trenches and providing some psychological comfort
to the soldiers.
The most famous dog to emerge from the war was Rin Tin Tin,
an abandoned puppy of German war dogs found in France in
1918 and taken to the United States, where he made his film
debut in the 1922 silent film The Man from Hell’s River.
As the first bona fide animal movie star, Rin Tin Tin made the
little-known German Shepherd breed famous across the
country.
