Jacko and Julie, strays adopted by Rashtriya Riffles are natural alarms

Keeping out infiltrators is no easy job, especially if it has to be done in freezing cold, at an altitude of 10,500 feet. But the work of jawans becomes slightly easy because they get a lot of help from home-grown, efficient, early-warning systems — Jacko and Julie.
Jacko and Julie are strays adopted by the Aanganpathri company of 40 Rashtriya Riffles (RR). They are part of a five-dog gang which has been with the soldiers, through thick and thin, for the past year.

Interestingly, these dogs have not been trained by the army, their skills come from being guard dogs. “During the day, three of these dogs move with the patrol party. At night they stay with sentries. They are super quick at detecting suspicious movement, which makes them as good as early-warning systems,” Major DK
Bansal, company commander of 40 RR at Aanganpathri, said.
Of the five dogs, three are always moving with one team or the other. But Jacko and Julie are permanent fixtures at the camp.

“Those two live in the camp and they won’t even allow in strangers unless they are accompanied by the soldiers,” Sepoy Som Raj said.

Jacko, Julie and the other three dogs belong to a breed known as Bakarwali dogs and they’re meant to survive tough conditions.

They can live in sub-zero temperatures and are ferocious, mostly because they’ve been trained by the Bakarwal (shepherd) community to guard their herds. Best of all, the dogs are low maintenance. They get by without special food. “They eat chicken, eggs and rice. Sometimes they also drink milk. Mostly, they eat leftovers  and stay in the open,” the sepoy said.