World War I brought an explosion of dogs to the battlefield. According to an article by The United Stated War Dog Association, Inc., the Germans had 30,000 dogs and the Italians handled 3,000 for their allies, while the British and the French had at least 20,000 dogs serving for them. The U.S. had used dogs as messengers in the Civil War, but when joining the Triple Entente in 1917 to enter WWI, they only had a few sled dogs in Alaska working for them and did not consider them military.
