What Unit Is This?

[Gil Boyd]

We, as humans know nothing about dogs. Their true capabilities are only now being learnt.
They find Cash/drugs/explosives/Cadivar body parts and even detect cancer. All things learnt in the last 20 years.
I remember once as a Police Diving Supervisor, we were searching a very large lake for a drowned person and it was a long arduos search. We came into the bank to replace divers and get more cylinders, when a dog handler who I knew wanted to have a break and boat ride with his dog. His dog sat on the front, and as we reached the search pattern buoys, the dog started barking and indicating for no reason.

It was so intense and he was so adamant something was there, that we put a diver down and recovered the body. What we learnt from that incident was, that the bodies bubbles were continually being released to the surface, unseen by human eyes but smelt by the dog............absolutely amazing to watch.

Later in service I invented a microwave camera system for the Home Office that dogs could wear after the Hungerford Massacre in 1987. The service needed kit to be able to be the eyes and ears of a dog once he went into a stronghold, and respond to what they were telling us as humans, and beam those images and sound out for others to monitor a search remotely.
I called it W.O.L.V.E.S (Wireless Operational Link & Video Exploration System, in honour of the dogs. It is now used right across the spectrum of dog use, with much smaller technology applied to it, and made a significant mark in the variety certain species of dogs can find.

I have shed many a tear over them, and proud to be able to say that. Its heartwarming to see dogs used for the blind and hard at hearing etc..........what versatile animals they are, and we are only now, scratching the surface as to their true capabilities.

[Peter Laidler]

I got to know a RAVC WO* on Gulf 1 who oversaw the putting down of several dogs there. He was a bit like me I'm embarrassed to say, that they were clever and all that but just another tool to do another job. A bit like a Police dog. My wife and I used to run with several packs of beagles at Shrivenham and Radley and also had a couple as well as walking the pups. Some lovely pack dogs.... Heroin, Harvester, Honey as well as Dainty, Dutchess, Dido, Daring and at my suggestion...... Comet, cromwell, Centurion, Centaur...... I digress. But never really got too attached to them, even the ones that came to live here as pups or when they were recuperating after being mauled. None ever lived indoors even in the coldest weather. They kept warm ins straw filled kennel and loved looooooong walks and bike runs! I knew a load of dog handlers in the cops of course. One lives opposite, about 100 yards away and he has an alsation and a drug spaniel. But they are just working tools to him. I rebuilt an old Litton IIW and gave it to him, Best bit of kit he ever had!

* The RAVC WO was Australian and I got to know him just because of our Oz connection. He came to the UK by arrangement with a firm offer of a job the the RAVC. The gollies are truly frightened of dogs.........

All the very best and have a good weekend

[Merle]

I did get confronted by a dog like that with no lead on, all mouth and teeth, some years ago and it was on a public footpath. It wasn't funny.

And you with no rifle!

[Flying10uk]

Some years ago at an air show, H.M. Revenue and Customs put on an exhibition for the public to show their work etc. One of the items on display was a car's petrol tank that had had drugs concealed within it by smugglers, but it had been detected. So I asked one of the people from H.M. Revenue and Customs how they had managed to discover it, when it was so well hidden inside a car's petrol tank. The reply that I got was that the drugs dogs sniffed it out which surprised me considering the smell of the petrol fumes that must have been present.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------

And you with no rifle!

A deactivated rifle wouldn't have helped my predicament much. I don't know what I would have done if the dog's owner had't appeared.

[Merle]

Some years ago at an air show, H.M. Revenue and Customs put on an exhibition for the public to show their work etc. One of the items on display was a car's petrol tank that had had drugs concealed within it by smugglers, but it had been detected. So I asked one of the people from H.M. Revenue and Customs how they had managed to discover it, when it was so well hidden inside a car's petrol tank. The reply that I got was that the drugs dogs sniffed it out which surprised me considering the smell of the petrol fumes that must have been present.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------



A deactivated rifle wouldn't have helped my predicament much. I don't know what I would have done if the dog's owner had't appeared.

Fix bayonet or use it for a club!

[Gil Boyd]

IDEA: Perhaps we should train a dog to sniff out fake 4T's and other copied WW2 rifles??

[Youngblood]

Great picture ...

That is a great picture.

Thanks!

[Flying10uk]

A chap once told me who use to be in the British army during the 1970s that at some British bases, I think outside of the U.K. if there was a real threat?, sometimes the base had an inner and outer perimeter fence with no-mans land between the two fences which was patrolled by loose dogs. He went onto say that when the dogs were put "on duty" in between the two fences they were put in unfed so that they were hungry and more aggressive while on patrol. When the time came to take the dogs off duty they threw the dogs some food over the fence before attempting to access the dogs because it wasn't really safe for the handlers before the dogs had eaten.

I have no way of knowing if any of this is actually true because my only experience of dogs is as family pets. Perhaps others are able to say if something along the lines of the above may have occurred years ago although it probably wouldn't be considered acceptable these days on animal welfare grounds.

[CINDERS]

Now there ya go Gil what a great idea that would be the best thing, why you could line the T's up in a rack and let the deefer sniff out the faker sort of like a crim line up.

[Peter Laidler]

During escape and evasion exercises and training (always a good part of a bigger exercise) we were taught that it's always fair game to fight back if it's one single dog because they only have a set of teeth and you have a set of teeth too, to rip its xxxxx xxx - PLUS two hands to hold it down, fingers to gouge eyes and feet to kick and cause fatal internal damage and knees with which to drop onto it and do the same. They're lighter than you too. Much more to it than that that's best left unsaid. BUT you have to go in expecting some hurt. No different to a boxer going into a ring though. He's not going in expecting an immediate knockout either. Sorry to sound macabre but that's how life is escaping and evading. And it is said that they KNOW when you're frightened of them. By the same token, I wonder if they know when you're not?