Duckhill Digest #26- Labrador Lifesavers - Jan 27, 2010

[Robert Milner]

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Jan 27, 2010 (Digest #26)

Labrador Lifesavers

How good is a dog’s nose? Better than we have instrumentation to measure according to a prominent scientific laboratory. “The dogs’ vapor sensing capability far surpasses the capability of modern measurement techniques,” noted a 2002 Sandia National Laboratory report on the smell sensitivity of mine detection dogs. “Even so, with extrapolation and estimation techniques, we find that the dog is capable of sensing at extraordinary low levels, levels that approach that of one molecule per sniff.”
That is down in the range of under 100 parts per trillion.

Labradors are beginning to predominate in scent detection jobs, especially the two major life saving jobs of IED detection and Urban Search and Rescue. It is really fairly logical to see Labs climbing to the top in these jobs. Labs are quite trainable and have been selectively bred to find stuff for nearly 200 years.
The recent Haiti earthquake dramatically demonstrated the value of Urban Search and Rescue dogs.
A good number of lives were saved by these valuable canine search assets. FEMA maintains a system of 28 USAR Task Forces, each of which deploys with 70 people and 4 dogs. 60% of the FEMA certified USAR dogs are Labradors. Four of these task force were deployed to Haiti where their dogs proved to be a huge force multiplier in the search for live victims buried under rubble. A good trained search dog can search a quarter acre of rubble in ten to fifteen fifteen minutes. To search that same area manually with probes and listening devices takes many hours, during which time people are dying in yet unsearched areas. If you’d like to learn more on how disaster search dogs are trained, here is a training manual I wrote for a FEMA USAR Task Force: http://duckhillkennels.com/libraries...SearchDogs.pdf

The Labrador is also beginning to displace the traditional German Shepard and Malinois as the dog of choice in the role of explosives detection. Labradors are easy to train and they readily accept new handlers. They are also a public relations asset, and not likely to threaten or growl at people. A major feature in today’s military conflicts is that they are almost all counter insurgencies in which it is important to win the hearts and minds of the indigenous people. It is hard to win hearts and minds when you are walking around with an attack dog.

The British Army has long preferred Labradors in the explosives detection role and used them quite successfully in their lengthy engagement in Northern Ireland. A recent US Marine Corps contract for IED Detection dogs specifically targeted Labradors as the desired breed to be used. IED detection dogs operate off leash out to 200 meters under the directional control of the handler in an operational model adopted from the British Army. IED Detection dogs are doing great work in Iraq and Afganistan. Their domestic Homeland Security will also become even more important. Auburn University’s Canine Detection and Research Institute and the British Transport Police have both independently demonstrated dogs that perform vapor wake detection of hand-held and body-worn explosives. A review of Auburn’s Mass Transit demonstration project by Sandia National Laboratories determined that the vapor wake detection dog could effectively screen over 1,000 patrons per hour passing through a choke point with no slowdown of throughput of the transit system. One can readily envision numerous scenarios where the vapor wake detection model could vastly enhance homeland security.

For background information on military use of dogs, here is an article I wrote for Air Force Magazine:
http://duckhillkennels.com/libraries...litaryDogs.pdf

Legacy Labradors – The Original

Our Legacy Labradors are now a year old and showing some behavioral traits that are a little different than what I normally expect to see in a British Labrador. We kept a dog and a bitch, Angus and Thistle, from Campdenhill Avon’s litter by Buccleuch Oak, a dog from Buccleuch Gundog Kennels in Scottland. The Dukes of Buccleuch were originators of the Labrador Retriever in the early 1800’s, and they have carefully maintained the original strain over the intervening years.
At one year of age, both Angus and Thistle are exhibiting an amazing level of hunt drive. When they encounter cover, they dive in and start hunting and don’t come out very readily. I occasionally have to walk in and put one on the leash to get him or her to come out. Both have plenty of retrieving drive and deliver to hand naturally. Both took to the water readily this past summer. Their level of hunt drive is what I find to be vastly higher than the average well bred British Labrador. This is the level of hunt drive I would expect in a top Springer Spaniel, not in a Labrador. These Legacy labs should be great for explosive detection and Search and Rescue.

Labrador History - http://duckhillkennels.com/dogs/history.php

Legacy Labs - http://duckhillkennels.com/dogs/legacylabs.php

A Good Week To Go To the Dogs

Duckhill has finally gotten the scheduling worked out for our British style field trial in April. Here it is:

13,13,15 April – A Gundog Training Seminar with Robert Milner and Robin Watson. Robin is a well known British Gundog trainer, an A Panel Retriever Field Trial Judge and a member of the Kennel Club.
You can sign up for the seminar at: http://shop.duckhillkennels.com/

16 April – Practice Field Trial

16 April (evening) – Dinner at the Retriever Hall of Fame in Bird Dog Museum – Grand Junction TN

17 April – American Gundog Club (AGC) Retriever Field Trial

More information on Events and Seminars: http://duckhillkennels.com/about/seminars.php