Belgian Malinois, German Shepherd breeds under spotlight as possible war hero dogs

Despite the few facts released about the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, people are parsing each detail in an in­cred­ibly collective study of the incident. The latest focus of attention? The dog that helped the team bring down bin Laden.

Military dogs have a long and storied history of fighting alongside soldiers (check out this gallery of war dogs at Foreign Policy), but the reliance on man’s best friend has increased as the enemy has increased its reliance on improvised explosive devices. Dogs have a far better track record of quickly finding bombs, the New York Timesreports.