ORIGINAL: Rex Ross
I read that the problem with the dogs was that they were trained using T34s......... a few times in battle a couple of dogs ran under the tank type that they were used to seeing and ignored the German tanks. Not good !
I've seen a picture of a ''stuffed'' dog in a Russian museum showing this dog with the bomb device. It was strapped to the dog on a saddle type harness. I'll try to fing that photo and post it. I built a 1/16 scale model of it just for fun a few years ago.
I think you're referring to the dog in Yuri Pasholok's photos, here:
http://www.primeportal.net/armory/yu...anti-tank_dog/
(The "trigger" here was not an antenna, but a spring-loaded stick attached to a grenade.)
In the months that followed the opening of "Barbarossa", breeders were so keen on producing legions of "four-legged IEDs" that all rules and protocols went out the window, and hundreds of severely inbred animals, sub par both mentally and physically, were the result. "Training" was questionable. (The dogs of the doomed First Special Service Anti-Tank Battalion were taught to attack tractors, not tanks! )
Only when it became obvious that the German Blitzkeig was running out of steam was some manner of control over dog breeding re-established, and the formation of specialized "squads" attacking German formations from deep ambush allowed for limited sucesses.
(Modern-day Russians are as upset as anyone by this callous disregard for Canine Life. Blogger "toly322" on the Russian Lanuage website "Community LiveJournal/war history" traces the evolution and outcome of the "Anti-Tank Dog Program" and concludes that though in theory the exchanging of dogs' lives for human ones may have seemed logical, in the end neither was spared. )
Edited to Add: Yuri Pasholok has also posted photos of a museum dog wearing a "discardable" explosive pack here:
http://www.primeportal.net/armory/yu...dex.php?Page=1
Note the "elastic" collar, and the 3 leather ties securing the ezplosive "saddle" on the dog's back.