Detector Dogs: CBP's "Secret Weapons"

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has an elite workforce that works for room and board and playtime. They work in air-conditioned airports, over rough and dangerous terrain, they travel the deserts and the deep forests, roam through vehicles at exhaust choked land border crossings, and inspect warehouses that are either hot or cold depending on the season. They are loyal and do their duty unquestioning. That workforce is made up of the more than 1,200 canines that detect narcotics, hidden or lost people, explosives, currency, and contraband agriculture products.

Most of the canines in the CBP work force have been trained to be specialists. The categories of CBP canines are:

• Explosive Detector Dogs - trained to detect explosive odors that could be concealed in cargo, vehicles, aircraft, luggage and on passengers.
• Currency/Firearms Detector Dogs - trained to detect firearms and the odor of large amounts of undeclared U.S. currency being smuggled out of this country to circumvent required monetary reporting requirements.
• Agriculture Detector Dogs - can detect fruits, vegetables, meats or other prohibited items that may carry animal, pests, or plant diseases that could possibly harm U.S. agriculture resources.
• BORSTAR Canines - Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Teams are highly specialized units that are capable of responding to emergency search and rescue situations in the United States. These dogs are trained to search without a leash and perform a recall-re-find indication, which has the dog returning to the handler after finding the target individual and leading the handler to the location of the missing or injured person.
• Narcotics Detector Dogs - are used in the interdiction and detection of narcotics, such as marijuana, hashish, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamine.
• Concealed Human/Narcotics Detector Dogs – are used by both OBP and OFO to detect concealed persons attempting to enter the United States illegally, as well as narcotics. During the 13-week training course, the dogs are trained to detect narcotics first and then to detect humans. There is no additional cost to training a team to detect narcotics and humans. Because one dog can perform the combined functions, the American public will have twice the protection against the illegal importation of narcotics and the smuggling of illegal aliens and possible terrorists.

A dog can screen a vehicle in seconds and do a thorough exam in minutes. Even a cursory search by an officer or agent would require at least 20 minutes. A canine team can also process 400 to 500 packages in about 30 minutes. It would take several inspectors an entire shift to process the same number of packages.

Office of Border Patrol

The U.S. Border Patrol canine program began in October 1956, when the Border Patrol purchased surplus sentry dogs from the military. Patrol inspectors retrained the German shepherds and Doberman Pinchers to support the Border Patrol mission. In the late 50s, Congress put a hold on the program.

Interest sparked in reviving the program in 1986, and the regional commissioner for the southern region gave the go ahead to a one-year pilot program. In January 1987, four Belgian Malinois were trained to detect concealed humans, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine. Two of the dogs were sent to the Laredo sector, and the other two to the McAllen sector in Texas.

The program was an immediate success. By the end of the one-year period, the dogs had seized more than $150 million in narcotics and had detected numerous concealed people. The program went from pilot to operational and more dogs were trained.

Canines working for the Office of Border Patrol detect narcotics, find hidden persons and perform search and rescue operations.

BORSTAR

In January 2001, the San Diego, Calif. sector established the first Border Patrol canine search, trauma, and rescue (BORSTAR) program. BORSTAR agents and their canines play a critical role in locating agents, civilians, and illegal aliens in distress. They operate in dangerous terrain and bad weather where access by conventional means is difficult, if not impossible. These dogs search and detect persons in areas of dense cover, with difficult accessibility, and give rescue efforts the additional crucial time when providing emergent care.

The OBP takes great care to select the best dogs for BORSTAR teams. Dogs are selected based on character traits and general disposition. Working with a human partner and interacting with the public while demonstrating a drive to perform search and rescue activities are essential to the success of the canine team.

The advance training required for BORSTAR canine teams include rappelling, and helicopter and boat operations. The dogs are also trained in various environments, such as snow, desert, pine forest, mountains, and swampland. BORSTAR canine teams are certified in Border Patrol tracking/trailing, obedience, search and rescue; and in the North American Police Dog Association tracking, obedience, and search and rescue techniques.

In October 2003, two of the BORSTAR canine teams were trained in cadaver recovery. Agent Roy Lopez with "Malcom" from San Diego, Calif., and Agent Pete Vasques with "Boy" from Yuma, Ariz., traveled to Boston where the Massachusetts State Police provided a six-week New England State Police Administrator's Conference Basic Search/Recovery Dog course.

Retirement

OBP canines have an average working life of six to eight years. The dogs usually work until they reach the age of 10. At the end of his career, a hard-working Border Patrol canine will most likely go to live with his handler—where he can start a new life of searching for a ball or other toy, instead of people and narcotics.

Office of Field Operations

The CBP OFO canine enforcement program began in 1970. Like most federal law enforcement agencies, the Customs Service canine program started with ex-military sentry dogs and handlers. In the intervening years, the canine enforcement program has grown from 6 to 600 working teams assigned to 75 ports of entry, international airports and seaports.

The OFO canine enforcement program uses a wide variety of dogs including, Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, and many mixed breeds. The Agriculture side of the canine program uses Beagles as well. The most important factor in selecting detector dogs for training is not its breed, but the extent of enthusiasm the dog displays toward retrieving a given object. All potential CBP dogs are tested to see if they possess the inherited traits that make them a likely candidate for detection training.

CBP gets approximately 20 percent of their dogs from animal shelters, are donated by owners who can no longer live with their dogs’ very active personality or are bought from reputable vendors here and overseas. Many dogs are tested, but relatively few are accepted. Dogs can be of either sex, but must be between 1 and 3 years of age.

Growing Our Own

In 1998, the OFO canine program established a breeding program based on a program developed by the Australian Customs Service. The American breeding program started as a way to increase the number of dogs suitable for training. The program started with 12 Labrador Retrievers donated by the Australian Customs Service. These dogs were all graduates of an extremely successful Australian Customs breeding program. The dogs are bred for their genetic abilities to detect drugs, explosives, and other contraband.

Agriculture Detector Dogs

The agriculture detector dog program started in 1984 at Los Angeles International Airport with one team consisting of a beagle and a handler. Beagles were selected because of their strong sense of smell and their gentle nature with people.

A Beagle’s natural love of food makes them effective detectives and happy to work for treats. These dogs are bright, inquisitive, active hounds whose sense of smell makes them curious wanderers by nature. They also serve as ambassadors for the importance of agricultural quarantine work, making hundreds of appearances yearly. Beagles are among the healthiest of all dog breeds. They travel well and are equally at home indoors or outdoors.

The “Beagle Brigade” works in airports inspecting passenger luggage looking for prohibited fruit, meat and plant material.

Larger breeds are used to work airport cargo areas and the main distribution centers for international mail. These larger dogs also work at northern and southern land border stations inspecting luggage and cargo from trucks, buses and vehicles.

There are currently 115 agriculture detector dog teams around the United States primarily located at international airports, seaports, land border ports of entry and international mail facilities. In Fiscal Year 2006, agriculture canine teams seized 1,145 prohibited meat, plant materials or animal products, including 147 agricultural pests at ports of entry.

Teamwork

While the dogs usually get most of the credit for a find, it really is a team effort. A good dog also needs a good handler to get him moving in the right direction to start a search and to be able to interpret what the dog is telling him. The longer a team works together, the easier it is for the handler to read the signals that his dog is sending to him.

The Twilight Years

The dogs usually start training at one year of age and mandatory retirement is at age nine. All the dogs, whether they are rescued from a shelter, donated by their owners, or are part of the breeding program, find a good home at the end of their career. No dog is ever sent to an animal shelter. CBP employees adopt many of the dogs that don't make it though training, and handlers usually take their retiring canine partner home with them.

The CBP Canine Enforcement Program is protecting America with the largest and most diverse law enforcement canine program in the country. The CBP canine program continues to diversify canine detection capabilities needed to combat terrorism, interdict narcotics, and other contraband while helping to facilitate and process legitimate trade and travel. Providing optimal defense at and between our borders, CBP has the largest number of working dog teams of any Federal Law Enforcement Agency. Canine teams are assigned to over 75 ports of entry and 69 Border Patrol stations throughout the United States.

They may not make the news, but everyone on the frontlines know the value of a well-meshed team of dog and handler. The bad guys fear them and the good guys praise them—the canine teams of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Other Sites:

BorderPatrolAcademy.com | BorderPatrolJob.com | BorderPatrolCheckpoint.com | BorderStar.com

ExplorerProgram.com | IllegalImmigrationNews.com | CBP.gov | ICE.gov

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