War Dog Armor

Origin

The leading of a large dog into battle goes back at least to the reliefs of Assyria and Egypt of the 7th century BC, and Polybius of Greece and Pliny of Rome wrote that the Molossus, the great dog of Epirus, followed the army and bore the work of messenger and watch. The spiked iron collar itself was older still, a tool of the shepherd, in wide use on the dog that guarded the flock from the wolf, and as the same tool was brought into the army, it grew naturally into a mark of the war dog. In medieval Europe the alaunt, the great hunting dog of the Iberian peninsula, and the mastiff were led out alike to the hunt and to the field, and in the hunting and military scrolls of the 13th and 14th centuries the figure of a large dog wearing a spiked collar and a body plate appears. The first time a full set of armor on a war dog is often drawn is the 16th century, in the conquest of the New World, when the great Spanish mastiff (perros de guerra) fought wearing a set of mail and hardened leather.

Features

• Spiked iron collar at the core
• Body plate of mail or hardened leather over chest and back
• Cloth-faced panels or small leather covers at shoulder and flank
• Cut to fit large breeds such as the Molossus, the alaunt, and the mastiff
• Double use of the spiked collar, guarding and striking together
• Trimmed to the many tasks of the army, from messenger and watch to scout and charge

Stories

War dog armor was a tool to keep the work of a beast-weapon alive longer in the field. The spiked collar covered the dog's thickest neck muscle and great artery from the first blow of the enemy, and the same spikes ripped the foot soldier's shin in the dog's charge to a halt. The body plate over chest and back stood against arrows and short spears, and the panels over the flank turned aside a slanting cut driving into the side. The army of Rome bore Molossi with spiked collars on watch and messenger duty, and the lords of medieval Europe led alaunts and mastiffs alike to hunt and field pursuit, setting them on the enemy who broke ranks and ran. The Spanish mastiff in the conquest of the New World in the 16th century became one of the most dreaded weapons of the conquest in the Caribbean and Central America, and the diplomatic record of England holds that around 1543 Henry VIII sent four hundred armored mastiffs to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to help him in his war with France.

Weakness

The limits of war dog armor grew above all from the small body of the beast that bore it. A set of mail and hardened leather laid five to ten kilograms on the dog's back, and that, in human terms, was as if a man bore the whole harness of another man on his shoulders, and the dog's quick run and long stamina were greatly cut. The head, the legs, and the belly of the dog were always left bare in the seat of the armor, and so cuts and thrusts aimed at the bare places were a real danger, and the spiked collar, on the inside, pressed on the dog's flesh and wore wounds when borne too long. Above all, a set wore through faster than the harness of a man, and each one had to be fitted by hand to the body of a single dog, so war dog armor often stood as a luxury that lords and conquerors raised for their own show, and could not be sent out in regular ranks like the gear of the common foot.

Cultural Significance

War dog armor stands as the clearest visual mark of one of the oldest lines on which the human took the side of the beast in battle. The great Spanish mastiffs Becerrillo and Leoncillo of the New World conquest of the 16th century followed the conquering parties wearing armor, and their figure was set down in Spanish records of the 16th century and in later painting, and made a face of dread woven into the cruelty of the conquest. The English diplomatic record that around 1543 Henry VIII sent four hundred armored mastiffs to Charles V, and the surviving Italian and Spanish hunting dog armors of the 16th and 17th centuries in the Wallace Collection in London, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, and the Museo Stibbert in Florence, all carry the craft to this day. Above all, the bulletproof vests of the war dogs of the United States Naval Special Warfare and the police dogs of many lands are the direct heirs of the same line, and the vest worn by the Belgian Malinois Cairo, who took part in the United States raid that ended bin Laden in 2011, is its best-known living face.

In Popular Culture

War dog armor appears as a fearsome visual sign in films, period dramas, and games about the medieval age and the age of conquest. The great dog just before the age of conquest in Apocalypto (2006), the works that draw the conquering parties such as The Lost City of Z (2016), and the brief mastiffs in the BBC drama The Tudors are shown bearing armor among their number. The scene of a large dog led out by the Persian side in 300 is also of the same line, and the Total War series of strategy games sets alaunt and mastiff units apart with the spiked collar and the body plate rendered faithfully. In modern war pieces, the bulletproof vest of the war dog seen briefly in Zero Dark Thirty (2012), in the scene of the bin Laden raid, is laid open, and documentaries such as Inside the Navy SEALs treat the war dog armor of Cairo's heirs in close detail.

Trivia

• Becerrillo, the Spanish mastiff of the 16th-century New World conquest, the most famed war dog that followed the parties of Vasco Nunez de Balboa and Juan Ponce de Leon, was armed with a thick mail and a spiked collar, and his figure became, in later painting, a sign woven into the cruelty of the conquest.
• The English diplomatic record holds that around 1543 Henry VIII of England sent four hundred armored mastiffs to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to help him in his war with France, and so the war dog once stood as a piece in the hand of diplomacy.
• The bulletproof vest worn by the Belgian Malinois Cairo, who took part in the United States raid that ended bin Laden in 2011, is the best-known living heir of the line of war dog armor that runs down from the spiked collar.