Ugandan dogs deploy in Iraq
May 16, 2004
UGANDA is soon to export 14 sniffer dogs to assist the US-led forces in Iraq to detect explosives.
By Alfred Wasike
UGANDA is soon to export 14 sniffer dogs to assist the US-led forces in Iraq to detect explosives.
Fifteen attack dogs are to be sent to the troubled Ituri Province in eastern DR Congo to guard a gold mine. Six will be sent first.
The German and Belgian shepherds were bred and trained by Armor Group, an American and British security firm in Kansanga, a Kampala suburb.
“The dogs to Iraq will go in two phases. I will take the first contingent of dogs at the end of this month and the second lot will leave at the end of June. They will be deployed in Baghdad to help the allied forces,†Birgitta Marais, the dog training camp chief, said on Saturday.
Marais is a retired South African specialist dog instructor.
Laynes, another retired
South African police dog trainer, said, “You know dogs’ sense of smell is 30,000 times sharper than
the human one. If you place a bowl of soup made from beans, rice, meat and other ingredients in front of a human nose, the human being will only smell the combination of all the ingredients. But dogs smell each of the ingredients separately. â€
Two dogs have been sent on missions such as one where the US is constructing a new embassy in Afghanistan. Thirteen are guarding installations in Dar-es-Salaam, 17 at warehouses in Kenya, 10 at US and UN property in Kinshasa and six at oil pipelines in Nigeria.
The Iraq lot will be led by Glow, a hairy two-year-old gray-and-white German shepherd.
In a typical training session, an explosive is concealed in a bag among several and Glow is released to search for it. She jumps over several bags and zeroes in on the right bag with stunning precision.
Her handler, Ernie Laynes, rewards her with a rubber ball to play with before she is led back to the steel-bar kennels.
Another dog, Ardhi, a light-brown 18-month old Belgian Shepherd, can “arrest†a robber.
A handler pretends to run away from a robbery scene. Another handler then unleashes Ardhi, who goes after the “robber,†wrestles and pins him to the ground.She only lets him go when orders are issued.
“The quality of dogs in Uganda is the best in Africa. Each of these trained dogs costs about US$15,000,†Laynes said.
UGANDA is soon to export 14 sniffer dogs to assist the US-led forces in Iraq to detect explosives.
Fifteen attack dogs are to be sent to the troubled Ituri Province in eastern DR Congo to guard a gold mine. Six will be sent first.
The German and Belgian shepherds were bred and trained by Armor Group, an American and British security firm in Kansanga, a Kampala suburb.
“The dogs to Iraq will go in two phases. I will take the first contingent of dogs at the end of this month and the second lot will leave at the end of June. They will be deployed in Baghdad to help the allied forces,†Birgitta Marais, the dog training camp chief, said on Saturday.
Marais is a retired South African specialist dog instructor.
Laynes, another retired
South African police dog trainer, said, “You know dogs’ sense of smell is 30,000 times sharper than
the human one. If you place a bowl of soup made from beans, rice, meat and other ingredients in front of a human nose, the human being will only smell the combination of all the ingredients. But dogs smell each of the ingredients separately. â€
Two dogs have been sent on missions such as one where the US is constructing a new embassy in Afghanistan. Thirteen are guarding installations in Dar-es-Salaam, 17 at warehouses in Kenya, 10 at US and UN property in Kinshasa and six at oil pipelines in Nigeria.
The Iraq lot will be led by Glow, a hairy two-year-old gray-and-white German shepherd.
In a typical training session, an explosive is concealed in a bag among several and Glow is released to search for it. She jumps over several bags and zeroes in on the right bag with stunning precision.
Her handler, Ernie Laynes, rewards her with a rubber ball to play with before she is led back to the steel-bar kennels.
Another dog, Ardhi, a light-brown 18-month old Belgian Shepherd, can “arrest†a robber.
A handler pretends to run away from a robbery scene. Another handler then unleashes Ardhi, who goes after the “robber,†wrestles and pins him to the ground.She only lets him go when orders are issued.
“The quality of dogs in Uganda is the best in Africa. Each of these trained dogs costs about US$15,000,†Laynes said.