Breitbart News was given an exclusive opportunity to visit and video canines being trained at the ATF National Canine Division in Front Royal, Virginia.
ATF senior trainer James James told us that the dogs are trained to be “detection canines, [which] perform explosive protection and then a separate discipline in accelerant detection or ignitable liquids.”
He explained that the canines “provide a tool to federal, state, and local law enforcement that can be used for public safety missions and criminal investigations.”
The dogs are trained to sniff out odors related to certain explosives, accelerants, and/or ignitable liquids, and we watched as they sniffed through various pieces of baggage, detecting the bag which emitted the order and sitting beside it to mark it. We watched them work on stacks of pallets, where the explosive material or accelerant and/or ignitable liquid might be buried too deeply for the dog to reach. In such a situation the canine knows to work the perimeter and find the place where it is closest to the source, then sit.
After each successful find the canines are rewarded with a treat, which is actually dog food.
ATF trainer Fidel Rodriquez told us canines are required to do one to five sessions a day during training. During training, food is given in a way that ensures the dog gets their “full source” of food or even slightly above that.
According to Rodriquez, “If we gave the dogs a full meal on their first session, what would happen the next session is that they may become too full, they may become lethargic, they may have…understood that they’ve completed their task for the day. Therefore, we break up their tasks into [numerous sessions] so that we keep them going, keep them going, they’re constantly searching, constantly looking for the next feeding, they’re constantly looking for the next replenishment of energy, which helps us carry them on throughout our day to cover more than just one scenario.”
As for different scenarios, Lead ATF trainer Howard Cotton showed how the dogs are trained to check backpacks that may be left at a the base of a tree or elsewhere outdoors in a crowded location. The dog can be sent to sniff the backpack and signal back–by sitting or not–whether the pack contains explosives. If it finds the explosives the dog is called back, for its own safety, and the ordnance disposal team can be sent in to “render it safe.”
Cotton also showed how the dogs are trained to find explosives, accelerants, and/or ignitable fluids in vehicles.
When our time at the ATF National Canine Division came to a close, Cotton stressed the ATF mantra, “Trust Your Dog.”
He said, “Worldwide, in the dog training community, if you ever hear ‘Trust Your Dog’ or ‘TYD,’ it’s because the dog has been properly trained. Do not doubt the dog. Trust the dog.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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