Courtney Moore works for Civil Aviation’s Explosives Detection Unit as a dog trainer & handler certifier.The dog detection unit started in 1992 with 4 dog teams & now has 34 teams with more being established.
Dogs are well suited for detection work as they have 300 million smell receptors whereas humans only have 6 million, dogs can operate each nostril independently (the mind bogles)
Courtney initially started with MPI training dogs for customs work detecting fruit etc. with air travelers, she said if you teach a dog to detect a lemon they will then detect all citrus.
Courtney said dogs could detect a drop of blood diluted in a 5 litre bucket of water or a tablespoon of sugar in the equivalent of 2 x Olympic Swimming pools of water
Aviation Security are always looking for families to foster pups from 8 weeks until 12 months old when they are assigned to a trainer. foster@avsec.govt.nz
The best dogs for detection are hunting dogs such a spaniels, Labrador spaniel cross, they need to be boisterous, be confident & totally focused on their work.
Up to now no explosives have been found at airports but the aviation security unit also work with the Police & often find explosives when executing search warrants.
Great talk by a passionate dog lover
