Washington Post
July 4, 2001
Sniffing Out Crime, Lapping Up Praise
By Lisa Makson
As the sun rises over an apple orchard in the foothills of Front Royal, Va., some of the nation's top athletes bound out of bed, wolf down breakfast and, thanks to an $8 million appropriation from Congress, do not have to train outdoors or in the cramped trailer as they had for three decades.
They are not preparing for the Olympics, nor are they athletes in the usual sense. They are four-legged rookies studying in the new state-of-the-art U.S. Customs Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Canine Enforcement Training Center, equipped with heated floors and the latest in audiovisual technology.
Bonni Tischler, Customs' assistant commissioner for field operations, said the facility, an old U.S. Cavalry station, was in dire need of updating. In addition to the 600 teams of dogs and handlers that are trained there each year, the center trains staff from 68 other countries and law enforcement agencies from all 50 states, she said.
"It was an archaic and unsanitary facility because of the [cavalry] stables," Tischler said.
Last year alone, the center's alums captured 762,270 pounds of narcotics and $29 million in currency.
Apparently the dogs appreciate the digs, as well as the activities.
"They are very enthusiastic about what they do. They are the best employees we have. . . . They enjoy going to work every day and enjoy what they are doing because we make it into a game for them," Tischler said.
The trained dogs have cut search time down from hours to minutes. Their olfactory ability can thwart the ingenuity of drug smugglers, who can easily deceive human officers by placing drugs in concrete statues or the shafts of arrows.
For example, when Gene Kerven, director of the canine training program, was in El Paso inspecting a Ford Explorer, one dog kept scratching near its gas tank. But human inspections came up empty.
So another agent took the dog around once more, and getting impatient, she jumped up and clawed the panel, removing some paint to reveal cocaine that was packed onto the body of the truck, covered with fiberglass and painted over.
The center's students, mostly golden retrievers and black Labrador retrievers, are culled from two places: Some, such as 6-month-old Ice, Indy, Iowa and Idaho, are bred on-site at the Customs kennel, where agency personnel are attempting to create an uberdog, while the rest -- nearly 85 percent -- are recruited by Customs' talent scouts, who comb animal shelters.
"We are looking for the renegade, the rebel, the alpha animal," Kerven said. "The one with an almost fanatic hunt drive who doesn't work well in a home environment because he goes out and digs up the yard."
In addition to the climate-controlled classroom buildings, the dogs also "play" in airport and cargo screening buildings with working conveyor belts; on a 150-car parking lot with real cars, all makes and models, as a real airport would have; on a Formula One racing boat; and on an airplane donated by a jail-bound smuggler.
During the intensive 12-week program, rambunctious Customs dogs learn to sniff out drugs -- marijuana, hashish, methamphetamines, Ecstasy, cocaine and heroin, in all their forms -- and currency in amounts greater than $10,000.
The dogs are trained to respond to a tightly rolled-up towel, which is scented with pseudo-narcotics that Customs chemists concoct on-site. They look and smell like the real thing but will not kill the dog if they are ingested.
The ATF pooches specialize in detecting explosives and accelerants used to start fires.
"The dogs have an amazing capacity for love and friendship and won't quit, just for the love of the handler," Kerven said. "We like to say that the teams are six legs, four eyes, two heads and one heart."
Upon graduation, the dogs are assigned to one of 70 locations, most of them along the southern border from San Diego to San Antonio.
Currently, there are 550 canine alumni in the field. They work until age 9 and then are adopted by their trainers or put up for adoption so that they can enjoy their golden years.
Copyright © 2001, Washington Post. All rights reserved.
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