After Pearl Harbor, a woman named Alene Erlanger pushed for the US military to begin using dogs.
[1] The Dogs for Defense program was the idea of Harry I. Caesar, a New York businessman and president of the American Kennel Club.
He noted that dogs had senses of smell, hearing, and vision that were superior to humans and that canines had long been used by armies.
He outlined a program that called for at least 125,000 of the nation's pet dogs to be trained and deployed for both civilian defense and military guard duty.
Many dogs were sent back home for being too friendly, but those who passed the training program were assigned to military installations both in the United States and in combat zones abroad.