Afghanistan is not a hospitable place for a British Army dog. It is a dry, arid country. For a dog who needs moisture to help it smell, these conditions can be extremely difficult. Not only does the dust kick up, requiring a dog to wear goggles to protect their eyes, but the sun beats down incessantly, burning their skin. Plus the locals aren't exactly friendly to a dog, especially if the dog happens to be black, and enemy snipers are actively looking for you. All three of these dogs have been awarded the Dickin Medal for their work as explosive detection dogs during the War in Afghanistan. Theo is better known than the other two after his death in Afghanistan at the age of one following the death of his handler, Liam Tasker. The pair had set new records over the course of the previous five months for explosive finds. Tasker was killed by a sniper, and Theo died from a seizure upon returning to base - something that the press said was a broken heart. Until Theo was posthumously awarded the Medal, Treo was the most recent recipient. He and Dave Heyhoe were deployed in Afghanistan during 2008, and found during two daisy chain bombs, preventing them from killing any British soldiers. Treo and Heyhoe had a couple of near misses with bombs - on one instance there was a device that failed to detonate correctly and another time it was simply unexplained how they managed to survive. But Theo and Heyhoe significantly reduced the loss of lives for the companies that they were assigned to in Helmand province. Sadie was the first explosives detection dog to be awarded the Dickin Medal during work in Afghanistan, and unlike Treo and Theo, she was awarded it for a single find. With her handler Karen Yardly, the two were posted in Kabul to search the outside of the United Nations building. The dog somehow managed to pick up the scent of explosives which were housed first in a pressure cooker, then covered with sandbags - and this all through a two foot thick concrete wall. Incredible.
