After reading this, I was wondering to myself if these dogs could be used to sniff out Taliban or Al Qaeda operatives in population centers? This team of scientists have actually bred a dog to detect the scent plume of individuals, and the level of sensitivity and utility of these types of animals are only limited by the imagination of the handlers.
Here is one way I could envision using these dogs. Enemy combatants that think they can disappear into population centers, could technically be tracked into those population centers by teams using these dogs and tracker teams. All teams would have to do is patrol extensively through the crowds or set up check points and use the dogs to find folks that have trace explosive scents on their body. To be able to sniff out entire crowds, like dogs sniff cars now, would make the game of finding these guys a little easier.
These vapor wake or VW dogs could also be used to track down the IED teams or ambush teams. Tracker dogs could sniff the wires of the device or even the spent brass, locate the position of the team and further get a stronger scent. The tracking team would probably follow the tracks into a population center, and that is where the VW dogs come in. Once in the population center, do a cordon of the area, and then send in the VW dog teams. You could put them at check points, and send guys in to sniff the crowds. The basic idea is that the dogs could be used to sniff groupings of humans in order to seek out the combatant, thus taking away a prime hiding spot for today’s enemies. If the village doesn’t want to rat the guy out, the dog could also be used as leverage in the negotiations with the village leaders.
Either way, all and any thoughts should be given to using such animals for separating the enemy from the population, as well as finding combatants with explosives on them. –Matt
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Could Owen, the Capitol Police’s Vapor Wake detection dog, be used for tracking operations in Afghanistan?
Vapor Wake Detection
The Vapor Wake Detection (VWD) Canine Team is a standard explosives detection canine team with the additional ability and training to detect carried or body-worn explosives. The VWD canine samples the plume of air coming off a person and/or what they are carrying as the person passes through a choke point or within a crowd. The canines can also detect an explosives vapor-wake after the person has transited an area and follow the vapor-wake to the explosive source. The canines have been exceptionally successful in this form of detection in areas with a large congestion of pedestrian traffic without impeding traffic flow.
The canine is specifically bred and prepared its entire life to succeed at this type of work. The puppy enters the Detector Dog Raising Program upon birth. We engineer various environmental exposures and develop the puppy over the first 12 months of its life. We use primarily Sporting Breeds for this activity due to the close proximity to people the canine must work. Additionally, Sporting Breed can operate within a crowd causing less, if not any, disruption. After the puppy, or now adult canine, completes the Detector Dog Raising Program it returns to Auburn University (AU) Canine Detection Training Center (CDTC).
The canine receives six weeks of vigorous training at the Canine Detection Training Center before a handler is assigned. Upon the student/handler’s arrival they enter as a team into a 10-week basic explosives handler course. Upon graduating the basic course the team receives a minimum of two additional weeks of training in their operational environment. Continued training in the operational environment is critical to the team’s continued success.
Auburn’s College of Veterinary Medicine has several years of developing this program into what we feel is a strong and capable detection tool in the fight against terrorism. Additionally, we’ve developed evaluation procedures/guidelines for certification which ensure the team is performing at an extremely high rate of proficiency. Our Vapor-Wake work is copy write and patent pending.
Link to Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine here.
Vaper Wake Video here.
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By Jordy Yager
05/25/10
It seemed like a normal morning last Wednesday as hordes of Senate staffers made their way through the Lower Senate Park to get to work by 9 a.m. But Owen, one of the U.S. Capitol Police’s newest hires, was weaving through the crowds, conducting serious undercover work.
Owen has been rigorously trained in a cutting-edge explosive-sniffing technique known as vapor wake. Owen also has a tail that wags. He is a black Labrador.
Owen and his handler, Officer Jeff Core, walked alongside the scores of unsuspecting staffers, subtly sniffing the wafting scent of each person. Their goal: sniff out a plainclothes Capitol Police officer who had five large sticks of inactive dynamite hidden in a vest underneath his plaid collared shirt.
Owen’s nose perked suddenly. He pulled at the black leash in Core’s hand as the last of the staffers passed by. And with Core in tow, Owen gracefully weaved his way up through the center of a group until he found the dynamite-strapped officer and proceeded to point at the man’s back with his nose.
Capitol Police is one of the first major law enforcement agencies to employ this new canine vapor-wake technology, and Owen’s performance last week was part of a demonstration for officers visiting from the New York Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Both agencies are thinking about investing in the $20,000 dogs.
Genetically bred and trained by Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, vapor-wake dogs are taught to detect the scent plume of air that comes wafting off a person, such as a suicide bomber, wearing an explosive device.
Whereas a standard explosives-detection canine is trained to sniff out a stationary explosive odor, a vapor-wake dog can detect the moving scent of an explosive odor, even in large, moving crowds with hundreds of competing smells.
Capitol Police has been deploying the four vapor-wake-trained dogs on Capitol Hill over the past month. The dogs are sent out at random so that no one will know exactly where they are at any given moment, Canine Training Supervisor Sgt. Charles Abernethy said. And each of the dogs gets at least one decoy a day, like the officer wearing dynamite last week, so that their training stays fresh.
“The K-9 Vapor Wake Detection Program is part of our commitment to employ cutting-edge technology and assets to counter current and emerging threats,” Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse said in an e-mail.
The vapor-wake dogs work in tandem with two specially trained officers, called Subject Interdiction Officers (SIOs), who are deployed with the dogs and trained to watch passers-by to identify possible attackers.
So when Owen signals that he has found someone with an explosive odor on him or her, one SIO decides how best to stop that person, while Owen goes directly back to sniffing out more explosive odors drifting in the air in case he can discover a second would-be attacker.
Because the job of a vapor-wake dog is to detect odors on people, Capitol Police make sure to expose the animals to a variety of people and scenarios that could be distracting or confusing — like busy Metro stations, people in wheelchairs or a person with a baby stroller.
But last Wednesday, Owen seemed focused on one thing. He busily sniffed staffers as two nearby pigeons sprang up into the air just two feet from him. Owen’s attention? Not even a flicker of distraction.
“As a trainer you try to defeat the dog because it makes them better,” Abernethy said. “But these dogs are so intelligent that it leaves us scratching our heads at a loss for how we can defeat them. And we haven’t, but we’ve tried.”
Story here.