What I Have Learned From Navy Seal Dogs

I have learned many things from Navy Seal Dogs. I have learned what you may think I have learned, and that is correct. But one thing that you may not have expected is the writing style Mike used. He doesn't write in a journalistic manner, he kind of only did that in the beginning. No, at some points, he was talking through the dog's perspective and then suddenly switch back to his perspective, which is odd but interesting. And also, he wrote just in a funky order, because some events we written in a different period, and were most likely done this way for a purpose. Another thing I learned from the book is some tactics Mike used in his training. Dogs, like us, have a consistent pattern when it comes to certain things. When you continue to train a dog, it will have a desire to continue with what it's doing, and I didn't know that's something dogs will also do. And, also, when dogs didn't cooperate at first, Mike used words of attention so the dog could follow what he says, ans one word he used was 'treat'.

Why did the Author write Navy Seal Dogs?

The author, Mike Ritland, wrote Navy Seal Dogs to show his personal experiences. I know that this is very broad, but his book is a primary source and can be used for any sort of purpose. We have books and stories written on the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II, and now we are going to have stories written in the past decade about troops in the Middle East. Another reason for him writing Navy Seal Dogs is to show the purpose and faults for us moving into Iraq and Afghanistan how much different it is continuously cooperating with K9s. Since this takes place early 2000's we were really going confident going into the Middle East. We were just hoping that establishing order there would ensure safety in the United States, but in my opinion, it kind of worked, but then again not really. So it's told through Mike Ritland's perspective to see and make you think about if what we're doing is right.

Another reason he might have wrote this is to show how much different it is continuously cooperating with K9s. Many of us have dogs today, and well dogs are a man's best friend right? Well that's exactly what Mike would think. Today, he trains German Shepherds and other suitable dogs to be able to use, so he probably still thinks this today. But do you guys think the same about what we're doing? And do you agree with what dogs really mean to you?

Final Blogging Assessment in English 1B

This is some of the best things that I have read about so far in Navy Seal Dogs by Mike Ritland in my opinion. One great thing that stands out in the book is that the knowledge and information you gained in this book comes from a primary source. Mike Ritland was a former Navy Seal and instead of getting information by someone else over a broad topic it won't get you the best experience and information by someone such as Mike Ritland and how he got to where he is. He uses long sentences and some run-on sentences to express his writing.

Another great thing I find about this book is the first section of the book talks on his training and not just all of a sudden going into combat when you don't understand prior what happened. He includes a lot of elevated diction, which explains to you what he was feeling at the time. A quote to show elevated diction from my book would be,"Because adaptability to an environment is so key to a working dog's success, I do a couple of other things to enhance both the pups' prey drive and their comfort level with the unfamiliar"(Ritland 56). I mean I don't think many would succeed in the training that Mike had to go through. They were more tough and fierce and required more tough and fierce training than another section of the military such as the marines or the Green Baret.

This book does tell you many things you may not know and is a lot different from many other military stories. I would continue to read more books like these and hopefully someone else would too.


Mike Ritland

I included elevated diction to show how the training was going for Ritland. My quote from my post to show this is my quote in the post about how he uses elevated diction to show the special training for dogs. I included sentence lengths in my post. In my post, the second paragraph has many long sentences to include his experiences. The long sentneces make you wonder/think about his experiences he had to go through.

My blogging goal for the trimester was to include my voice more in my blog posts. And I think that I have improved my writing voice in a good number of ways, but is not as good as I wanted it to be. I discussed about my own feelings in my blog posts, and what I thought of what the book was saying. At first, I felt like I didn’t include my voice and I just included whatever the book said. I felt like I also did this in English 1A. Going through the trimester, I think I have included my voice in most of my blog posts that I’ve posted. Some of the posts though I think don’t really include my voice, as there may be just one line of my voice. Overall, I have definetly included and improved my voice in my posts throughout the trimester.

Impact of Setting in Navy Seal Dogs

In Navy Seal Dogs, the setting is in modern day Iraq and Afghanistan and happened in the earlier 2000's. This setting has to make the characters always be on their guard. Since they are in unwanted territory by the residents, the Seal's K9 has to stay up some nights and keep watch. Like I might've said in my earlier posts, if someone was invading your home/territory, wouldn't you get mad? Because depending on the situation, I think that I would get mad. Plus, the setting makes you wonder what will happen at any moment. While Mike (the Navy Seal) and his team are moving across a small town that happened earlier in the book, him and his team were ambushed by a small team of the "residents" I must say. While no body died from it, it just symbolizes how dangerous the world is out there. Even with some of the most advanced forces, American casulties still result. We never know what the people of Middle Eastern countries are thinking about us behind the curtain, such as Afghanistan. Sometimes I wonder why we're still there too, as even stated by Mike.