Australian Customs Service breeds and trains

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

s to detect illegal drugs,

firearms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

and hazardous chemical precursors associated with the manufacture or deployment of

chemical weapon A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as ...

s. Each year these dogs are responsible for hundreds of detections. Detector dog teams operate nationwide and search sea and

air cargo Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail. Aircraft types Different cargo can be transported by passenger, cargo or combi aircraft: * Passenger aircraft use the ...

, aircraft baggage, international mail, ships, buildings and people. The Customs Detector Dog Training Centre in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

trains

narcotic The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

, firearms and

detector dog teams for Australian Customs and a range of federal, state and territory agencies including police,

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

and corrective services. The centre also provides training to law enforcement agencies from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

and

Saipan Saipan () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...

. The Customs National Breeding and Development Centre in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

supplies suitable

Labrador Retriever The Labrador Retriever or simply Labrador or Lab is a British list of dog breeds, breed of water dog retriever gun dog. It was developed in the United Kingdom from St. John's water dogs imported from the Newfoundland Colony, colony of Newfoun ...

s not only to Customs but to Australian federal, state and territory agencies, and countries including the United States of America, Indonesia, China,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, Guam,

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

History

In 1969, Australian Customs Service had only two detector dogs. Dogs were sourced from

animal shelter An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of the agricultural communities, where stray livestock w ...

dog pound An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of the agricultural communities, where stray livestock ...

s and people with unwanted pets. From these early beginnings the program continued to grow throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the early 1990s, the growth in the Detector Dog Program had led to difficulties in sourcing sufficient quality dogs to supply the program. The solution was the development of the Customs detector dog breeding program to produce a reliable, high quality supply of dogs. This development included research by Mr John Vanderloo, into the best

dog breed A dog breed is a particular type of dog that was purposefully bred by humans to perform specific tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. Dogs are the most variable mammal on Earth, with artificial selection producing upward of 360 globall ...

to meet the requirements of Customs across a range of criteria, with the Labrador breed being selected for their focus, versatility, temperament, and strong

hunt Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

and

retrieve RETRIEVE is a database management system (DBMS) offered on Tymshare's systems starting in August 1971. It was written in Tymshare's own FORTRAN, SUPER FORTRAN on the SDS 940. It offered basic single-file, non-relational database, relational databas ...

drives. An intensive three-year study, conducted in conjunction with the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

and the Royal

Guide Dog Guide dogs (colloquially known in the US as seeing-eye dogs) are assistance dogs trained to lead people who are blind or visually impaired around obstacles. Although dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are red–green c ...

s Associations of Australia at the Customs National Breeding and Development Centre, identified the required

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

for

breeding Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant. Breeding may refer to: * Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and rab ...

and the best environmental influences for development of detector dogs. In early 1993 a three-year pilot-breeding program commenced using Labradors purchased from the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia and leading Labrador

breeders A breeder is a person who selectively breeds carefully selected mates, normally of the same breed, to sexually reproduce offspring with specific, consistently replicable qualities and characteristics. This might be as a farmer, agriculturalist, ...

. This breeding program is now the only source for Australian Customs detector dogs and is one of only a handful of specialized Detector Dog Breeding Programs in the world. Today, many other agencies use dogs bred by Customs. Customs bred dogs have been deployed in a variety of fields including

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

detection, food detection or explosives/firearms detection. Australian Drug Detector Dogs have been provided to various nations under Regional Assistance Programs managed by

AusAID Australian Aid is the brand name used to identify projects in developing countries supported by the Australian Government. As of 2014 the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has been responsible for Australia's official development ...

(the Australian Federal Government Overseas Aid Agency). Since 1993, Australian Customs has bred more than 1,000 puppies, most of which have been successfully deployed throughout Australia and overseas as operational detector dogs.

External links

Australian Customs Service

References

Detector Dog Program
{{Law enforcement in Australia d Detection dogs