Photo by Christoph VoyDRUGS
Let me state for once and for all: our dogs are not addicted. Even a small dose of drugs would most likely be lethal for them. Yes, they know the smell, but that’s just from the training, only using small amounts, and never, never administering them drugs for consumption. A junkie dog would be of no use at all for jobs like this.
We train them here using tiny samples of drugs in a sealed plastic tube, which is their “toy”. This plastic roll has tiny holes in it, and is filled with some kind of drug in a sealed container. For the dogs, finding the toy is a game of hide-and-seek. The reward is simply finding their toy. We get fresh samples of drugs from the loot when there is a drug bust, or an arrest. Periodically we get fresh material, because the dogs have to be used to the same stuff that is on the market.
The dogs are trained to scratch the ground when they find something. My dog is a bit strange though. She doesn’t like scratching the ground indoors. She lies down instead to signal that she has found something. Well, dogs really have their own personalities. This dog is also my personal pet. They have to know and trust us. They stay with us until their dying day. We have to finance those ourselves, but that’s okay, they’re really a part of our families.
Recently there was a drug bust in a house in Berlin where a huge amount of cocaine was found. It was worth millions in street value. We brought my dog in to make sure we hadn’t missed any. She signalled a closet. We opened it up and emptied all the drawers, but didn’t find anything. But she kept on kneeling and sniffing at one corner. We took off the bottom of the drawers, and found €40,000 in cash taped between the linings. Evidently, the dealers had handled the drugs and left traces of coke on the cash. That was a good find. I was proud of my dog.
Another time we had a tip for a drug bust. We were sure that there must be huge amounts of drugs hidden in this building. We found the money; we found the equipment for weighing and packaging the drugs. We just couldn’t find the stuff itself anywhere. After investigating the room, my dog was circling around the middle on its hind legs, signaling upward. So we got out a ladder and opened up the roof panels.
Sure enough, the dog was right as rain. I don’t think we would have broken open the ceiling unless she had given us that tip.
OFFICER A
EXPLOSIVES & WEAPONS
The Berlin Police department in Spandau has started a pilot project with a Parson Jack Russell specialised in explosives. I am currently training the first dog in the project. Her name is Lily. It’s an interesting breed, originally used in hunting. This new dog is part of a project to find smaller dogs with especially sensitive olfactory capabilities. They are perfect for hunting in small rooms, in cars, in caves, tunnels and on or behind objects where humans or larger dogs simply wouldn’t fit.
