By L.K. Hewlett
St. Kitts Reporter
Defence Force personnel are busy at work constructing kennel facilities for their expanding canine unit.
Sergeant Glen Williams explained that they now had three dogs in the unit, two males and one female. Two of the dogs, he said, had been bought overseas and were already pre-trained.
“The two larger ones were bought in the United States and they had some of the training already. We have to continue their training here. Two of our three dogs are drug sniffing dogs and the other one is trained to sniff out explosives, which would include guns and ammunition,” he told The Observer.
One of the drug-sniffing canines, a german shepherd, ran around a jeep on the compound as it searched for marijuana hidden in the vehicle as part of its training. The soldier explained that once the dog had picked up the scent, it would try to find the source, even if the drugs were wrapped in material and hidden out of sight.
“As you know, the canine sense of smell is much keener than that of humans so the dogs are able to find illegal drugs that we could never find. Criminals think they are smart and you would not believe the places they hide drugs, in vehicles and on their person. Some people even push drugs inside themselves so that police can’t find them.
“But the dogs can pick up even the slightest hint of those drugs and are usually able to pinpoint where they are stashed. The dogs are immensely useful to any law enforcement agency as they sniff out and find what we cannot see or smell for ourselves,” Sgt. Williams said.
He also noted that there were soldiers in the unit who had received extensive training in the handling of the dogs. In their training, he explained, they had learnt amongst other things, how to recognise certain signals and behaviours displayed by the animals which indicated that they had smelled drugs or explosives.
He took the opportunity to thank all the private companies and individuals who donated money to purchase the dogs and material to build the kennels. He said they hoped to be able to purchase two more dogs in the near future to increase the drug sniffing unit and the explosive sniffing unit.
