New York – Rashad Alkhader – Homeland News – From News – FBI<\/p>\n
The Police Unit’s working dogs train continuously to detect thousands of explosive combinations and protect FBI facilities.<\/p>\n
My name is Steve Hall. I\u2019ve been with the FBI K-9 program since day-one. This is Dora, our newest dog. She started on duty last December.<\/p>\n
These are explosives detection canines. They can pick up about 19,000 different explosive combinations that are out there that anybody can make up. The FBI uses them to make sure their facilities are safe.<\/p>\n
These dogs\u2026we only use Labs because they are nice, calm, friendly dogs. The dogs need to be able to work out with other people. It\u2019s not always running into a building that\u2019s been evacuated because of a bomb threat. They\u2019re working out with the general public every day. So they need to be friendly dogs. They need to be calm dogs.<\/p>\n
We take them home with us every night. They are a member of the family. They do everything that we do. They even go on vacations with us at times.<\/p>\n
Slate: The FBI Police have 15 dogs; five work at Headquarters in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
These dogs train every day of their life. We use a food reward system, unlike a play reward with a ball or a rope or a chew toy. They work to eat. We hide something, they find it, they get fed. They\u2019re not getting fed out of a bowl. Every piece of food that comes to them comes from our hand.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve hidden a\u2014about the size of a quarter\u2014piece of TNT somewhere under a car and her nose is going to find it.<\/p>\n
If I see anything that I think I want her to target that she\u2019s not targeting I place my hands, she follows my hand, just like a line. She\u2019ll follow it wherever it goes.<\/p>\n
Something\u2019s bugging her here. Where is it? Good girl.<\/p>\n
The dog will stop and set and will not move from there now until I do something for her. First thing I tell her, \u201cGood girl,\u201d so I know that she knows what she did. Then I give her some food out of my hand. See what she\u2019s showing me. I put something right there in the trunk. A small piece, inside. Even though the trunk is closed, there\u2019s still odor that comes out of there. She knows it\u2019s in there. So I stop and I say, \u201cWhere is it?\u201d and she tells me exactly where it is. Problem is once you find it, she\u2019s going to want to stay there.<\/p>\n
Slate: FBI working dogs train 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.<\/p>\n
We have to work them all our days off, if we\u2019re sick. Whatever. It has to be done because she wants to eat. And you can\u2019t all the sudden just feed her. It\u2019s going to throw them off. My retired dog at home would not eat out of a bowl for at least two weeks after she retired. He thought it was a trick.<\/p>\n
If you work all the time that\u2019s not fun. You gotta have play time. Relaxation time. They want to play. They\u2019re a dog. Make them into a soldier and they\u2019re not having any fun and what good is it to come to work. They get to come to work and interact with other people. People love them, and they love that. They love the attention. They just want to play and have a good time and in the process make their owner happy, find a few things and get fed.<\/p>\n
Slate: FBI dogs can detect 19,000 different explosive combinations.<\/p>\n
Things we use are the real things. It\u2019s the real dynamite. The real TNT. All the stuff you hear about. All the gun powders and all the things that are out there. You use the real thing because that\u2019s what they\u2019re going to be trying to find in the real world.<\/p>\n
This program started at the FBI in 1999. Prior to that time the FBI didn\u2019t have their own K-9s. They contracted for a few years, then in \u201899 we felt the need for them. And now, since 9\/11 everyone is trying to start their own explosives program.<\/p>\n
So we\u2019re coming up on our 10th year and we\u2019re just getting bigger all the time. We started out with me and we’re going on now to 15 dogs and more to come in the next few years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n