War Dog’s Story: Giving A Voice to the Voiceless

Story

Many war stories have been told over the years, but rarely are those stories about man’s best friend, the military working dog. After speaking with many retired dog handlers, it became clear to us that the story of the working dog needed to be told. The more we researched this, and the more dog handlers that we spoke with, the more we realized that this was going to be an even bigger project. And we needed to properly and respectfully enable them to tell their stories, their full stories.

To that point, a documentary series of this magnitude on military working dogs has never been done before. This documentary was created for the K9 family of K9s, K9 handlers, veterinarians and the families of the K9 handlers, many who now bear the honor and weight of a Gold Star. To date, this series has been funded without any restraint of outside influence on the project. It is our mission and vision to be able to allow THE K9 family to tell their stories without being filtered, watered down, embellished or otherwise diminished. We feel very passionate about this project as we know you will. The story of the dogs that gave their lives for our country should be told before they are forgotten. In this way we give a Voice to the Voiceless.

This documentary series focuses on the roles dogs perform in support of conventional and Special Operations US Military forces.

These dogs have served as mascots in the trenches of France during WWI where they proved to be far more than just soft and cuddly. In WWII families donated their pets to be trained by the military to protect their handler and alert them to danger. They fought in the brutally cold mountains of Korea and in the tropical heat of the Vietnamese jungles. Today these war dogs track the enemy, locate trapped victims, find explosives on and off leash, walk point, and protect not only the handler but the total force behind the handler. Oftentimes, the combat assault dog is sent in to find the enemy before the soldiers go in.

Through this series you will hear the unfiltered first-hand stories from veteran war dog handlers of WW2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the War on Terror focused on the roles their heroic dogs played to save their lives and the lives of others under extreme conditions. You’ll hear heart wrenching stories of dogs who lost their lives in battle and how it forever scarred the heart of their handler. You will also hear the stories from the darkest days of canine history when many of the dogs who were forever loyal and served so faithfully were abandoned as equipment and left behind in Vietnam at wars end.

You will learn of the changes in the career field that came about as a result of our experience in Vietnam. With the global war on terror, military working dogs continue to be an invaluable lifesaving asset to both our conventional and special operations community. Their potential continues to be realized and their capability to serve expands. As a result of this and the combined efforts of Veteran handlers and public awareness, working dogs are now allowed to be retired and spend their remaining years with their canine handler or other approved families. Efforts are ongoing to provide them lifelong health care insurance as well.

Finally, just like any warrior, there are times of peace. We look at the dogs story here as well. When nations end their struggles what happens to the dogs trained for war? In times of peace dogs continue to play a vital role protecting military installations worldwide. They operate as Military Law Enforcement Officers. They accept missions around the world protecting key leaders, supporting little known operations, training allied forces, and doing whatever is required of them, oftentimes paying the ultimate price for their service and sacrifice in places and ways few hear of. With this documentary series, you hear the dogs own story told by the only one who is truly able to tell it, the dog’s handler.

These firsthand accounts paint a picture of service and sacrifice and of a bond between man and animal that can only be created in the crucible of fire. In the instance where the handler is unable to tell the tale we have gathered fellow handlers who knew them or historians who studied in depth their story. Through this we have painstakingly endeavored to provide a voice to the voiceless in order for the dog’s story to be told.

To date, we have conducted a total of 39 interviews across 5 states. We are very fortunate to have received the support of retired dog handlers and historians as well as the US Army, Air Force, Marine Corp, and even TSA in order to tell this story.

Interviews have been conducted at Fort Bragg in NC with the 550^th Working Dog Detachment. Former members of our military’s elite Special Operations Community sat with us to tell us stories that have never been told about their canine partners.

We traveled to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Texas to collect interviews and action footage from the 341st Military Working Dog Training School, the TSA Canine Training Center and the Holland Memorial MWD Hospital.

We filmed at the Annual Military Working Dog Honor Stone Ceremony in Wisconsin, the SOF K9 Memorial in Fayetteville, NC, the War Dog Memorial in Columbia, SC, and the U.S. Military Working Dog Teams National Monument in Texas.

Here is a 16 minute, 30 second video representing some of the footage we have shot and our story….

There is still more work to do. We have more locations to travel to in order to film footage we feel is critical for this documentary series. If we can achieve our goal, we will film an additional 15 or more interviews as well as support footage at additional memorial sites. Once the remaining interviews are filmed, we can begin the post-production process of editing these interviews into the episodes we envision.

$85,000 will pay for the completion of an 8-part documentary series consisting of a minimum of 6 hours of footage. We will film additional interviews, cover the cost of Post-Production (editing, color grading, sound, music composer, voice-over), rewards expense, Indiegogo fee, and an advertising campaign for the series.

Stretch Goals

The more we can raise, the more we can accomplish! We set up stretch goals in the hopes that we can raise enough money to get even more interviews done and expand the documentary series beyond the original 8 episodes. It will also help us to boost our advertising budget to promote the series and further expand our reach.

$125K Goal

Additional interviews will help create a 12-part documentary series consisting of a minimum of 9 hours of footage.

$200K Goal

Even more interviews will help create a 20-part documentary series consisting of over 16 hours of footage.

High Proof Media is made up of film makers that have extensive experience in creating documentary and reality shows, as well as instructional videos.

Check out our documentary on IMDB:

This documentary series is being made independently from any major studio or streaming network. While that may provide us the freedom to interview who we want and present their stories as we feel they should, it also means our resources are limited. We are counting on the community of dog lovers and supporters of our military to help us raise the funds needed to:

Complete the filming of the interviews we feel are important to the overall series.
Go into post-production with the funds to cover editing, color grading, voice-over recording, etc.
Funds for advertising and promotion of the documentary series

As with any video production, there is always the chance of delays in filming interviews due to scheduling issues. Other delays can arise during the editing process. Once the episodes are completed and trailers made, we will place the documentary series with a distributor to secure multiple streaming platforms to air the series. That said, there is never a guarantee that large streaming services will pick up the series.

If you can’t contribute to our campaign, we completely understand! But that doesn’t mean you can’t help us. Please help us get the word out about our campaign and get people talking about the war dogs and their story. Use the Indiegogo share tools and help us reach as many people as we can!

Follow us on social media! See updates on the documentary series:

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube

Our perks program is all about helping spread the word about The War Dog’s Story. Like we said before, our goal is to get as many people talking about and watching this documentary series as we can get. Not only with your financial help, but with the help of wearing our promotional apparel or taking that coffee cup to work, even more people will learn about the series!

Thank you in the credits

Thank you in the credits
War Dogs Decal

Thank you in the credits
War Dogs Decal
War Dogs Coffee Mug

Thank you in the credits
Get access to exclusive unseen footage from the War Dog’s Story documentary and access to the complete series prior to the public debut.

Thank you in the credits
War Dogs Decal
War Dogs Hat
Get access to exclusive unseen footage from the War Dog’s Story documentary and access to the complete series prior to the public debut.

Thank you in the credits
War Dogs Decal
War Dogs T-Shirt
Get access to exclusive unseen footage from the War Dog’s Story documentary and access to the complete series prior to the public debut.

Thank you in the credits
War Dogs Decal
War Dogs Hat
War Dogs T-Shirt
War Dogs Pullover
Get access to exclusive unseen footage from the War Dog’s Story documentary and access to the complete series prior to the public debut.

War Dogs Decal
War Dogs Coffee Mug
War Dogs Hat
War Dogs T-Shirt
War Dogs Pullover
We’ll include a special dedication in the closing credits to a dog handler and/or dog or a soldier of your choice along with their image.
Get access to exclusive unseen footage from the War Dog’s Story documentary and access to the complete series prior to the public debut.

Limited to 5

War Dogs Decal
War Dogs Coffee Mug
War Dogs Hat
War Dogs T-Shirt
War Dogs Pullover
Associate Producer Credit
Added to IMDB listing
Get access to exclusive unseen footage from the War Dog’s Story documentary and access to the complete series prior to the public debut.