h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The dour minds who devised the dog-bomb to take out German tanks should really have learnt from their compatriot Pavlov, or at least asked his advice as to how to do it!

The dogs were conditioned to run underneath tanks by the simple expedient of placing their food dishes, and sleeping quarters, underneath a tank used for training purposes, thus accustoming the unlucky Sobaka to seeking food and shelter beneath a tank. This was done so that when the moment came, a large-ish landmine could be strapped to the dog's back, and when it scampered underneath a German tank for expected food and shelter, a contact fuse on top of the mine would slam into the underside of the AFV and explode the whole juggins. With, presumably, a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union medal for poochie.

Unfortunately, it was a Russian tank that was used for training the dogs and Russian soldiers who did the feeding.

As Pavlov might have said had he been asked, this was secondary reinforcement, in that the dogs grew accustomed to feeding underneath RUSSIAN tanks and having their food served by people dressed like Russian soldiers, who smelt like Russian soldiers, who spoke Russian to the dogs.

What the dogs did not recognise as familar territory was the underside of a German tank, nor did they associate German soldiers with food and shelter. From a dog's point of view, the smell, sight and sound would be wholly unfamiliar.

But once the mines were strapped on and the fuses were activated to explode on contact, the dogs involved certainly DID know to find their way underneath RUSSIAN tanks!

I understand the idea was dropped, quietly, after a lot of "own goals".