Croatian Sheepdog Dog Names

Lucca means shining light in Italian and this dog is definitely a shining light of hope and spirit for all that she did for her partner as well as thousands of other people she saved in her six years with the United States Marines. Although not a Croatian Shepherd, Lucca was a Malinois X, which is a German Shepherd mixed with a Belgian Malinois. She shares the ancient genetic link of the Shepherd line and displays the same characteristics of intelligence and loyalty found in the Croatian breed. She went on more than 400 successful missions as a bomb-detecting dog with zero human casualties. 

Her first partner, Chris Willingham, said he knew she was unique the first time he saw her in 2006 in San Antonio, Texas. She was two years old and just out of the arson academy, taught to sniff out bombs. Although all military pups are trained to be brave and loyal, that is not really something you can teach because they have to be brave and loyal at heart. She served two tours in Iraq with Chris before doing another stint with a different handler, Juan Rodriguez. 

After hundreds of intense but effective missions, the one in Afghanistan with Juan is the one that showed everyone what a true heroine Lucca was. She was able to locate thousands of rounds of ammunition, explosives, and other weapons as well as the insurgents who were guarding them. But in the 2012 Afghanistan mission, she was on patrol and had just sniffed out a 30-pound improvised explosive device when she tripped another explosive right underneath her. 

Her partner, Juan, rescued her immediately, wrapped her in a coat and took her to safety, bandaging her up and airlifting her to a medical center in Germany. Ten days after undergoing hours of surgery, she was walking again, but with only three legs. The doctors had to remove one of her front legs because it was too damaged. However, even though Lucca could walk again, she was retired from the Marines and went to live with her first partner, Gunnery Sergeant Chris Willingham and his family in California. 

Due to her bravery, Lucca was awarded the Dickin Medal, which is the highest award for valor for military animals in Britain. The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) unanimously agreed that Lucca should be awarded the medal and she brought more attention to PDSA than any other awarded animal has ever brought. And she was the first U.S. Marine dog to get the medal. Because of her extraordinary sacrifice, her story was also turned into a book called “Top Dog: The Story of Marine Hero Lucca” by Maria Goodavage.