Explosives Detection Dogs

Explosives detection dogs were never as important as today. Both the assassination on 11th of September in the USA and those in Israel caused global discussions about handy safety concepts.

In our todays time the worldwide need for explosives detection docs is as high as never before. Acts of violence continually increase in nearly all countries of the world. Bomb terror, armed escalation and explosive assassination incriminate social agenda very often.

Our Explosive-Detection Dogs can do a very important job here. Thanks to their pronounced sense of smell they can find explosive stuff also there, where we aren't able to do that even on the base of not comparable technical explosives detection systems. There is no technical respectively electronic device having approximately the possibility to reach the performance of a dog's nose.

The usage of explosives detection dogs is necessary in all places, where a bigger risk of safety exists and searches can be executed exclusively in a visual way.

Explosives detection dogs have special importance compared to other material-detection dogs, because mostly human lives depend on the right deployment of these dogs.

This topical loses consciousness, if you think about deployment of dogs for detection of anti-personnel mines in crisis areas. Obviously there isn't a competitive technical alternative in difficult scenic conditions. But also police services without explosives detection dogs are unthinkable by now. For example social, economic and political highlights are protected preventively by searching possible hiding places for exploding-pits using explosives detection dogs before the beginning of such an event.

In this context using a well-trained explosives detection dog these days is one of the most prominent and significant methods.

Basic Premises for Training of Explosives Detection Dogs

A dog must meet the following basic premises to make it a explosives detection dog:

High fitness and health in general

Movement confidence on different undergrounds in buildings (tiles, stairs, gratings)

The dog's breed plays only a secondary role to match the fundamental prerequisites for becoming an explosives detection dog. So there are suitable specialists with four legs in all working dog breeds, in all agile Hounds, Retriever and Terrier breeds.

Goals of Explosives Detection Dog Training

The training of explosives detection dogs is done on commercial and military explosives, on in-house productions as well as on weapons and ammunition. The dog must find explosives, which are packed, hidden or changed, must be quiet at the finding place and report the finding by sitting or laydown.

Part of the training is the conditioning of the dogs on following explosives:

The basic conditioning of the Explosive-Detection Dogs is made with pure explosive material on a search wall:

Contents of the Training and Advanced Training

In the basic and advanced training lessons the K9 handler will get practical and theoretical knowledge about:

Deployment of explosives detection dogs

Explosives detection dogs are used in common preventive measures:

In shopping centers, schools, planes (usually because of bomb threats)

At motor vehicles: only outside

In big depots, factories, concerns

In big rooms on venues (state visits)

Search for weapons, parts of weapons and ammunition cases in the open country

Search of pure explosive on: cases, bags, boxes, and so on

Support of the mine searcher for example in Afghanistan

Certification of the Explosives Detection Dogs

During certification process the explosives detection dog has to prove its ability to find and indicate commercial and military explosive materials:

The explosive detection dogs are checked for several days on the above-mentioned explosives, in-house productions as well as on weapons and ammunition parts. They should be able to find and to indicate them.