Indian Army canines Rice, Victor, Zac and Rowdy are taking part in Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2026, working with US Army soldiers in room intervention and rappelling drills that put the Army's military working dogs on show for the visiting contingent.

According to the Indian Army, the demonstrations gave US Army personnel an opportunity to observe the dogs' training, agility and employment alongside troops in demanding tactical situations.


Indian Army canines in the drills

The four dogs cover three breeds.

Zac is a Belgian Malinois, the breed widely used as an assault dog by special forces around the world. Rice is a Labrador Retriever, the standard choice for explosive detection in most armies, India's included. Rowdy and Victor are Rampur Hounds, an indigenous Indian breed that the Army says it is increasingly employing in military roles.

Room intervention is the close quarter task of entering and clearing a closed space in a built-up area, where a dog can be sent in ahead of the assaulting soldiers to locate whoever is inside. Rappelling puts the dog on the rope with its handler.

The Army said the canines bring operational experience from deployments across India's Northern and Eastern borders.

Where the dogs fit in Yudh Abhyas 2026

Yudh Abhyas is the annual India-US Army exercise, now in its 22nd edition, with this year's training spread across Auli in Uttarakhand and the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Rajasthan. The exercise formally opened at Auli with a focus on Integrated Battle Groups in mountainous and semi-mountainous terrain.

Indian Army canines have been part of the programme from early on. A counterterrorism building clearance drill at Auli paired assault teams with drones, robotic dogs, canines and snipers, while at Mahajan the Army's M777 Ultra Light Howitzer crews took the US contingent through day deployment and shoot and scoot drills. The US side has published its own coverage of the exercise on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

The Army said the participation of the four dogs highlights the growing role of Army canines, particularly indigenous breeds, and the close coordination between the animals and their handlers.

The Indian breed in the team

Military working dog roles in India have long gone to imported breeds.

The Rampur Hound comes from the old princely state of Rampur in western Uttar Pradesh, where the Nawabs bred it to hunt jackals. It is a sighthound, lean and long-legged, known for speed, stamina and fearlessness. Those traits, along with resistance to disease and climatic adaptability, are what the security forces now look for in a dog meant to work in Indian conditions.

The push has official backing. In his Mann Ki Baat address of 30 August 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Mudhol Hounds had been trained and inducted into the dog squads of the Army, CISF and NSG, and urged citizens to adopt Indian breeds.

The Border Security Force went further. After the Prime Minister's January 2018 visit to its National Training Centre for Dogs at Tekanpur in Madhya Pradesh, the force inducted Rampur and Mudhol Hounds, and it now deploys more than 150 Indian breed dogs on the western and eastern borders and in anti-Naxal operations, according to BSF officials.

Rampur Hounds from Umroi to the Manipur border

Victor and Rowdy arrive at Yudh Abhyas with a record. The Indian Army said the Rampur Hounds earlier demonstrated their capabilities at an international multilateral exercise at Umroi in Meghalaya.

That exercise, reported at the time as Exercise PRAGATI 2026, was held in May with troops from 12 friendly nations including Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Philippines. A Rampur Hound named Victor was fielded there as a tracker, working beside a Belgian Malinois assault dog and a Labrador trained for explosive detection, and officials presented the integration of native breeds as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat push, pointing to their adaptability from deserts to glaciers.

From Umroi, the hounds moved to the Manipur border. There, they detected Improvised Explosive Devices.

Siblings on the Punjab front during Operation Sindoor

The line has seen operations elsewhere too. Siblings of the two Rampur Hounds were deployed in the Jalandhar and Amritsar Sectors during Operation Sindoor, the Army said.