Following a trail through a minefield: in Donetsk region, dog breeders with service dogs passed exams
Find hidden explosives and drugs, search for a person after a long trail — the four-legged pets of the police canine center passed difficult tests and received certificates. Five-day advanced training course took place in all structural units of the center in Mariupol, Slavyansk, Volnovakha and Bakhmut.
Every dog handler and service dog must regularly confirm their qualifications. To conduct training and check the level of training of canine groups, Serhiy Gaiduk, the head of the cycle of dog training of the State University of Ukraine “Zhytomyr Primary Center for Training of Dog Trainers” arrived in Donetsk region.
Testing took place in three directions: the search for weapons and explosive devices; the search for drugs; the search for a person by its odorous trace.
The dogs demonstrated the ability to search for prohibited items in various objects — in luggage, in transport and in a room with furniture. One of the tasks was to survey the area for the presence of mines. The tailed “sappers” in a few minutes coped with the inspection of a large territory, which makes them indispensable in the investigation of crimes in the conditions of armed aggression. When searching for a person, the dog should have found a trail that was three or more hours old.
The examiners recreated real conditions: they used an odorant substitute in a weak concentration, masked objects for extraneous pungent odors (for example, gasoline), made hiding places uncomfortable for dogs (at altitude, in thickets). At the same time, the ability of four-legged trackers not to respond to stimuli was tested: loud sounds, people, other animals.
Leonid Kotov, head of the canine center of the Donetsk region police, noted that the field training course is an exception and makes it possible to increase skills without separation from the service, so security in Donetsk region remains under control.
“The teacher noted the work of bloodhound dogs according to the international method of mentoring - when the dog does not focus on footprints, but pursues the person freely, instinctively following the particles of smell floating in the air. In total, 45 dogs are bred in the canine center, which this year helped to solve 439 crimes,” Leonid Kotov noted.
With the participation of service dogs, eight units of weapons, almost 12,000 rounds of ammunition, 118 explosive devices and more than 3 kg of explosives, as well as more than 5 kg of narcotic substances were seized.
All quadrupeds who participated in the test confirmed their qualifications and received certificates.
“The dog breeders of Donetsk region are one of the best, because the dog center pays great attention to the selection of workers and dogs. Having visited Germany, the USA, the Czech Republic, Moldova, etc., I can state that the police dog trainers of Ukraine are able to compete with European colleagues,” Serhiy Gaiduk said.
He also invited police officers to share their experience of training bloodhounds with colleagues in the framework of all-Ukrainian seminars.
