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Axel, a 3-year-old Dogo Argentino who was born deaf, is preparing to deploy with the Michigan National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment as the unit’s official ministry dog. He was surrendered to a shelter as a puppy after his original owners realized he couldn’t hear, according to a Michigan National Guard news release.
Sgt. Mollie Karazim, a religious affairs specialist with the Michigan National Guard, adopted Axel and saw potential in him from the start. “Axel is loyal, loving and made for an active lifestyle, so I thought he would be a good fit for the infantry,” Karazim said. Rather than treating his deafness as a limitation, she built a training system around it, developing visual cues and hand signals, including several based on American Sign Language. Axel now knows more than 50 commands.
Over the past year, Axel became part of the 125th Infantry Regiment’s routine, riding in Humvees, spending time in the field, and interacting with soldiers throughout the battalion during drill weekends. He wears a special vest and collar only while on duty, signals he’s learned to recognize as meaning it’s time to work. “He has a vest that he only wears when he is working,” Karazim said. “He also has a special collar that he only wears when he is working. When he sees those, he knows he is going to drill.”
Karazim, who works with chaplains supporting hundreds of soldiers across multiple companies, said Axel functions as an icebreaker that helps the unit ministry team connect with and support soldiers. “Axel is not a tactical asset; he is a force multiplier by means of mental health and soldier readiness,” she told Military Times. Axel will deploy alongside Karazim and the unit’s chaplains, continuing that role throughout the mission.
My thoughts: What stands out is that Axel’s deafness didn’t get worked around so much as it got built into the whole training plan from day one. Karazim didn’t just teach him commands, she said trust had to be built from puppyhood specifically because he couldn’t rely on hearing her the way a hearing dog would. It’s also worth noting how much operational vetting he went through, command approval, field testing, drill weekends, before anyone signed off on him deploying. This isn’t a mascot riding along for morale alone; it sounds like the unit genuinely worked out whether he could function in that environment first.
Source: Michigan National Guard / Army.mil, with additional reporting from Military Times and the National Guard’s official news service
