Scent shows he nose what he’s doing

SCENT the super sniffer demonstrated he “nose” how to catch out drug suppliers with an impressive display of his skills yesterday.

He swept through Shaw’s transport in the Yarrawonga Industrial estate, along with dedicated handler Senior Constable Richard O’Brien, to prove his worth to the NT Police Service.

After bouncing from one box of freight to the next in search of illicit substances he located a cannabis-laced towel hidden inside a rubber tube and scratched frantically to raise the alarm of his handler.

The five-year-old Labrador was imported from Customs in Canberra along with canine companion, Monte six months ago – in part to clamp down on the amount of illegal drugs reaching remote communities through bus, freight and air deliveries.

Figures revealed yesterday by the NT Police show that in the first six months of operations the drug dogs have detected 6.3kg of cannabis, 18.2g of amphetamines and more than 280 ecstasy tablets. In that time the dogs have performed 460 searches of premises, people and vehicles almost 400 hours of searching.

Almost half of those hours have been served outside the Greater Darwin area.

Scent’s handler, Sen-Constable O’Brien said he enjoyed having his canine companion as a partner.

“They don’t argue back and they’re always keen to do the job,” he said.

“You have to remember they’re working dogs and treat them as such but I enjoy looking after him and I’m happy to have him as a partner.

“When he finds something I just give him a pat or a play with the towel.”

The dogs and their handlers were paired together for their personalities after a training course conducted by Canberra-based Customs officials.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Tue, 20 September 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Greg McLean
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283