In 2010, a Blue Ribbon Panel met to discuss the emerging trend of Canine Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD). Because of this, Army veterinarians began training to identify inclusionary behavioral signs tailored explicitly to Military Working Dogs (MWD). Previously, veterinarians would loosely use a model of behavioral symptoms in humans developed by the Veteran's Administration defining Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Burghardt, n.d.). The attribution of PTSD to MWDs is not a new concept. During the battles in the Pacific of World War Two, US Marines employed Doberman Pinschers to help seek out enemy emplacements across the Mariana Islands. While conducting these operations on the island of Peleliu, one of these Doberman Pinschers, named Hans, snapped and attacked his handler after exposure to continuous mortar fire, both friendly and enemy. The handler had to shoot Hans to protect himself from Hans' attack. After a week of constant combat operations on Peleliu, an additional four dogs became "shell-shocked," an antiquated term for the characterization of PTSD (Lemish, 2008).

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