Developing a Canine Search Capability from the Ground Up

Andy Thompson talks with Simon Mallin, a freelance Consultant Canine Trainer, highly experienced in patrol, explosive search, narcotic detection, anti-poaching, and medical alert training courses for dogs and their handlers, working with public and private clients, nationally and internationally.

What is the background to your career in Search Dog Training?

I’ve been working within the canine industry since I was 18. I kicked off initially with the British Army, the Army Dog Unit, Northern Ireland, in the late 80s, early 90s. My parents had kennels, and my dad was in the Royal Signals, so it all fitted together well! When I left the Army, I initially went to the Philippines to conduct canine training and that was the catalyst for my interest in international work.

When the Iraq war broke out in 2003, I deployed as a reservist and, when I was there, I did a bit of networking on the canine side. After coming home, I went straight back out on a private contract with Global Risk Strategies, working at Baghdad International Airport – not with dogs but on the main checkpoint. Obviously, there were dogs there, which led me to work for a company called Blue Hackle, a British security company. I headed up their canine operations. I stayed with it for five years and learned the ropes, on the commercial side as well as the “on the ground” delivery. I came home late 2008 and started my own training business. Blue Hackle became clients, and I was flying quite large numbers of dogs to them from the UK.

What was very noticeable in the UK, in 2008, was that the only qualification available for dog handlers was a Patrol Dog course, which I’d been fundamental in writing back in 1996. There was nothing for explosives or drugs. It was all done on a wing and a prayer! With the Olympics coming up, there were a large number of private sector Explosives Search Dog Teams required. So, the timing was good!

I was one of founders of an organisation called NASDU, the National Association of Security Dog Users, established in 1996. When I came home in 2008, I got more involved on the committee. I became Chairman and worked hard along with others in developing qualifications.

NASDU has grown arms and legs. It is the go-to place for training, qualifications, and standards. It has a team of trainers, me included, across the UK and overseas now who provide training and assessments for dog handlers, whether they are coming into the industry new or for ongoing training and assessments on a quarterly and annual basis.

How have your services evolved? 

I have worked in various countries around the world, in the private sector, whether it be QA/QC scenarios or initial set ups – for example, helping organisations in Africa where I have done quite a bit over recent years, in relation to anti-poaching

Last year I decided that I had enough of running a company as I was missing what I really wanted to do, which is training dogs and handlers. I downscaled, became a sole trader and was doing quite nicely and running less courses in the UK, and more overseas, along with medical alert dogs for private individuals. My passion is overseas, more than anything. I quite enjoy fixing what isn’t right: UK standards, UK qualifications; if they fit within the organisation or blending them so they fit in with their requirements.

I have also been involved in the anti-poaching activity in Africa, which I enjoy. It involves tracking dogs, predominantly – tracking human scent from the “kill” back to wherever they disappear to or searching for contraband at airports, checkpoints and so on. Sadly, money to finance these operations and resources is limited particularly now with the Covid situation and no tourism. That is a problem because the poachers are still out there.

Another aspect of what I do is Medical Alert dogs. I have trained five so far over the last two years for private individuals, such as children (although adults too) who have got Type 1 diabetes.  They come to me with their own dog or I find them a dog, or we find a dog together, and the dog is trained to alert the owner handler, prior to them going into a low – like an early warning system when training dogs for children, the children generally are trained, if they are young, I train the dogs to alert the parents rather than the child, because the child could be on his Xbox and not paying a lot of attention to what is going on!

It is not rocket science. It is quite simple to do, but it takes time, and it is repetitive, and a big part that is teaching the dogs to behave because they are going into restaurants and offices. I’ve got one dog whose owner is 21. She works in a call centre, so the dog has to sit under a desk all day, semi-awake, in case needed. So, they have got to be quite patient, dogs. Not search dogs – a different type of dog is needed, more the couch potato type, that is quite happy to sit there and is greedy – that is what the reward is, food!

Who are your typical, mainstream clients?  

In the U.K., my customers for courses are private individuals. Normally, those coming out of the Forces looking to become a dog handler in the private sector, or security officers that are in the industry that want to see dog handlers working at festivals and events. Or dog lovers that have never been involved in security or people, having a career change! Overseas, I work with security companies – I have been talking recently to an organisation in Qatar in the Middle East who have nothing to do with dogs, more logistics, but they are keen to develop a canine capability, with the World Cup, global sporting event.

I get enquiries all the time, and the challenge is turning them into something that becomes juicy! The way I see myself is as the SME. I can do a start-up programme, which is what I like – if there is nothing on the ground whatever, I can give you designs for kennels; I can help you recruit handlers whether they be from your own country or overseas; I can source dogs; I can run initial training for both dogs and handlers; I can provide ongoing support as they progress.

Historically I have done a lot of that work, jumping from country to country. I quite often get asked to do QA / QC, so I sell myself as an independent Consultant Trainer.  he Trainers” Patrol Dog Course

What is the nature of the training?

My skill base is patrol and general-purpose: the scenario of security dog handler patrolling a fence line; explosive search, training green dogs and novice handlers from start to finish together, which is the business model that I employ. I do not train the dogs separately. I train the handlers together. I try to start from scratch. I’ve also got a great network – colleagues, instructors that I can bring in when I need to assist if it is large enough.

Drugs: Proactive, which is vehicle, building to open areas, routes, and Passive which is scanning: dogs trained to detect substances on people. This has led me to other enquiries that recently for dogs being used to detect Covid on human beings at entrance points. The negotiations have been going on for five months! Everybody likes the idea of, but to get finance is another story! We hit a bit of a brick wall with that one. The business plan is there, and the model is there, and it can be done, but it can be taken anywhere in the world. So, if it is not going to find favour here in the UK at government level, then the private sector, whether it be businesses or organisations can still take it on. The Middles East clients are quite interested in this, and I have recently got an interest from an International Oil and Gas Company.

The (UK) government is trialling it, though. An organisation called Medical Detection Dogs, which is a charity, were given £0.5m last year to trial the concept of dogs being trained to detect Covid on human beings. They completed all the trials. We spoke to them, including the lead professor who’s involved with it, but it doesn’t seem to be pushed out operationally. They are just testing, testing, testing. It seems to be coming to a close now, so let’s make it operational!

How long does it take to train a dog and the handler?

It depends on the discipline being trained. Explosive Search for example: training a green dog with a novice handler. I look at the ratio metric: 4 learners to 1 instructor, which is a NASDU requirement anyway. That course lasts 32 to 35 days. In the UK I deliver it over two 16-day modules, so I can use the weekends, which means less time for people to be away from the workplace.  

Overseas, I tend to deliver over a five-day week with a two day breaks in between, or whatever the client requires, specifically.

There can be language barriers and logistics challenges overseas. I delivered the course in Kenya for 8 handlers. I had an assistant and we delivered that over 12 weeks because the numbers on the course and language barrier, and some the students were not great with dogs initially, I deliver the same here as abroad. I do not water it down at all. I bring out an independent assessor at the end and it is a pass or fail. If they failed, it does not mean they failed forever. We can do more training depending on what the failure was.

For passive drugs and proactive drugs courses: passive is detecting substances on people, proactive is buildings, open areas etc. Both courses are run back-to-back: it is two separate disciplines, but you can train a dog to do both. It is the same process. Here in the UK, I run it over to 16-day modules with the five day break in between. If overseas, I tend to spread it out over a number of weeks.

The basic level Patrol Dog course, here in the U.K. is seven days, it is short. It is too short, in fact, and this is partly the problem with the industry. We have grown arms and legs! We have got more instructors than we need. Consequently, the patrol dog course is very competitive, selling wise, and it has been watered down, in my opinion. Delivering that course in less than seven days is just not possible. But people are doing it and they are selling it at cheaper prices.

I stuck to my guns. Since Covid, I have marketed myself in the UK on a one-to-one basis rather than have group courses, it is one to one. I have got less costs and overheads now, so it can be done. The problem I am finding now is because I train in live venues, not everybody wants me to use their venue because of Covid. Bridgend a local college was a main supporter of mine and I cannot set foot in there, currently, until further notice.

Really frustrating, especially as some of it can be done outside. They have rules now that there are no visitors on campus whatever, albeit the campus is 300 acres. I do understand it though. I’ve actually had to turn quite an amount of training away because I’m just not in a position to deliver it properly here in the UK, at present, so I’m looking to commercial or government clients overseas.

Where do you source the dogs?

That has become difficult since COVID-19 because everyone wants dogs. The price of raw dogs has gone up to stupid amounts of money. Labrador puppies are being sold for £1500, £1600, £1700, whereas a year ago there have been £400, £500 pounds. That is crazy.

I try to source rescue dogs or unwanted dogs and working type breeds. For the Search side, it’s Spaniels, Labradors – predominantly. Some spaniels do not fit well in a home environment – they are on the go all the time. You can find that end up in rescues. The dogs that do end up there have qualities that I have been looking for, that you might not look for as a pet, meaning they want to work and they are on the go all the time, begging you to play with their toys.  

Also, social media, pet owners – you just put the word out. I do get calls but again, that has become difficult with Covid.

We are limited on the breeds of dogs we can use here in the UK, due to a British Standard, whereas abroad there are very rarely limitations on breed types, which I agree with. If a dog can do the job, it does not really matter what breed it is, but we have a different way of looking at it here. For example, here in the UK, we never use a German Shepherd. You cannot use a German Shepherd in the private sector to carry our explosive search because public perception is that they might think that dog’s going to bite for a living, whereas if that dog has never been trained to bite and it is selected appropriately, there is no reason that it cannot do search. It is purely public perception, so it is difficult to find dogs.

Now, if somebody contacts me and they want to come on course, I advise them to source their own dog, which I help with, and I assess the dog for them, prior – put them in touch with rescues, that I know. They adopt a dog, they take the dog home, and they buy it and then they come on the course, and I train that dog and handler together.

How have the training standards for canine search evolved?

All the qualifications are through NASDU and we are developing new ones all the time. That involves quite a strict paperwork trail, throughout the course, which we submitted to NASDU on completion, including we must account for the hours that we do, what delivery we’ve done in the hours, learning outcomes, assessment sheets – it is certainly in depth. At the end of the course, an independent trainer carries out a practical assessment of the team. During the training programme, if it is Search work, they have done the scent ID test, which the trainer delivers, which involves numerous explosive substances involved with but alternatives scents, in a line on a carousel. The dog needs to ignore the other scent, such as coffee, oil, sugar, dog food, tennis ball, and only indicate the explosive substance itself. The handler does not know where that is.

Again, that is a pass or fail, which is what we brought in about two years ago, to be in line with civil police in the UK. The military does the same test. There is also a British Standard that we work to, which was originally the NASDU Code of Practice, which has been improved and revised over the years and it is being tweaked and given to the agencies involved. It is reviewed every four years.

The dog and the handler must pass as a team. Some organisations run a handler course using a fully trained dog. That is something I try to avoid because anyone can pass it!  That is a course dog. It has done nothing except courses and the effect is basically giving somebody a piece of paper! There is no challenge to it.

I go right back to grass roots. It is a pet dog on day one. The handler experience is the training process. I am not making them trainers because it is only one dog. But at the end of it, they will understand how we train that dog in the hope that they will not break it, and in the hope that they understand the dog’s flaws as well as its qualities. No dog is perfect. If you have gone through that training process, they have watched me hitting brick walls and then saying, let’s try this, so they can move forward. They are writing training records all the way through the course, so they have got something to refer to.

Do the handlers have to revisit qualifications and courses?

On the explosive side, they must be assessed monthly. There is a monthly independent assessment and an annual recertification.

For drug detection, there is a quarterly assessment and an annual certification.

For patrol dogs, it is the same quarterly assessment and an annual certification.

There is quite a lot involved, cost wise, as well, for handlers thinking of getting into this line of work. Search dogs, whether it be drugs and explosives, are predominantly linked to events and festivals, concerts and so on. As you can imagine, none of that is happening right now. There are far fewer dog teams working. Consequently, I’m not going to be pushing the selling of these courses when there is very limited work for the foreseeable at the end of it.

What have you seen in terms of the evolution of training in the and the innovations that have come about in the last few years that you have been aware of?

I keep referring to NASDU. If that organisation had not been around people like myself sat on the committee pushing things forward and developing courses and moving handlers forward to become trainers and always improving standards, then I do not think there’d be an industry here.  

What was the catalyst for NASDU?

The 2012 Olympics. Prior to the Olympics, it was just patrol dogs and, of course, there were private sector dog handlers working in Iraq and Afghanistan. But here in the U.K., on the explosive side, other than police and military, the private sector was somewhat unheard of.  With the Olympics. G4S had the chunk of the market, and a company called Top Dogs a small percentage of it. But from memory, I think there were about 120 dog teams working on the Olympics, the lead up to it and the event itself, probably more… and all those guys, needed training. The Met Police were involved, and they asked what training they had had.

I wrote, developed (with support) and delivered the first explosive search course in South Wales. I loaned a Met Police instructor for the duration of the course. They allowed him to assist me. I wanted to base my training on their delivery. We came up with a very similar training package to theirs. With similar training, there was no reason why the civilians couldn’t work on the Olympic Park.

How did the market evolve after 2012?

The industry has grown arms and legs! There are security companies, dog security companies, that are providing canine search services in iconic buildings in London, behind the scenes in Heathrow, you do not see them because they are behind the scenes. The police and the military only do the fancy stuff and private sector doing the everyday searching of cargo packages and so forth.

After the Manchester bombing there were not enough dog handlers. If you could find dog handlers, they were after it happened: everybody wanted explosives search capability, and there were not enough! Then things got quiet again. Of course, people aren’t requiring the service and there is less of them to do the job or people being used. It waits for something to happen and then there is a demand for it.

What frustrates you about the training environment you work in?

The biggest challenge is finding suitable dogs. You could start with, say, ten dogs and end up with one or two. At times in the past, I had a whole course of dogs and came out at the end of it with nothing. They just were not reaching the standards we needed them to reach.  That is difficult. If you are running less courses and the demand is less, it is not difficult.

One of the reasons I looked to the rescue side of things is because you can find additional resources that people might have forgotten about. Overseas can be tricky as well, depending where you are. In the UK, we all have dogs as pets. There is a surplus of dogs. If you are out in the Middle East, for example, that is not going to happen. You would have to look to source dogs from another country again. It can be done.

It can be costly for raw material and they don’t hold parts! You have got to buy them in the first place. If they do not work out there is no agreement where you can return or exchange, so you have lost an initial amount of money that you cannot recoup

Training resources can be frustrating. I train in live venues – office blocks, shopping malls.  Normally, here in the U.K., I’ve got quite a large access to different environments. Overseas – Kenya, for example – when you start approaching businesses to come in with dogs to search, it is not normal! They are not used to it. You have to explain that the dogs are safe. Possibly you have got to go in after hours or with less people.  

Regarding the dog handler selection process – in the UK, private sector, people tend to pay for their own course. They have selected themselves to come on the course. I always say I cannot train passion. You have got to like dogs and want to do this. But I work with anybody within reason, if they have the ability and they want to do it. I do not mind putting the extra hours to work with people who are struggling a little bit. Again, overseas that can be tricky because not everybody has even had a pet dog. You might be starting from scratch and getting comfortable with putting a collar and lead on and grooming the dog and taking him for a walk, pick up its mess. That can be challenging for some!

What would be your advice for people looking to train in this sector?

Like any industry that we have got good and bad within ours.

Social media can be good for research. I think word of mouth is probably the best way. If you can speak to the dog handlers, whether it be using a social media platform, if you need to or people you know. The same names come up all the time, with recommendations, positive and negative! I tend to say there is no smoke without fire.

Pick up the phone. I tend to get email enquiries. I’ll send a brief reply and try to arrange a telephone conversation because there is too much to explain via email. The feedback I get from that is that people seem impressed that I have taken the time to do it and not just sent the cut and paste replies.

You need to make sure that people are on the right course for them. People would claim to want to be a dog handler. Well, there are lots of elements to being a dog handler and each one the end job and the potential of work is very different. For example, there is lots of patrol dog work, but it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It involves working weekends, nights, 12-hour shifts. It is a German Shepherd, or a big breed of dog that you have got to have at home and so on. But there is plenty of work out there.

Regarding explosive search. In normal times – you do not just leave a course and go straight into that. You have got to network in the industry. Like the CP sector, you’re going to come off a  course you’re not going to generally fall into your first job. You have to work at finding an opportunity. As a trainer I do try to make introductions to employers.

Who have you encountered down the years that you admired as a trainer? What quality stood out?

In 2002 I went out to Israel to do a CP course with the International Security Academy. I was very, very impressed with them from day one and throughout. What really did impress me was the CEO from the organisation. He was the round you and got involved. After I left the course, he stayed in touch. Every so often you get an email or a telephone conversation.  I just like the personal touch to it. At the end of the course, there was a meal, with certificates. His family came along. I appreciate it is probably a little bit of a gimmick, but I felt he was genuine. I did not feel it was set up, and I sell myself like that as well. If I can help people, I will.

Simon can be contact via email at k9info@simonmallin.com or visit www.simonmallin.com

Marshal is a powerful, exclusive digital marketing platform that helps to simplify and scale access to the complex Security Risk Management and Resilience market, in order to develop opportunities, drive growth and achieve objectives across conflict zones to cyberspace.