ISLAMABAD: One lot of unsung heroes of the war against militancy is surely the sniffer dogs. In demand by not just security personnel but also private concerns, they are the latest must-have item in the bomb ridden life and times that we are passing through.

Used for a variety of responsibilities – guard duty, tracking or detecting narcotics, explosives and weapons and even as rescuers  – the pressure for heightened security measures in recent years has raised the demand for trained dogs.

Official figures say that the total demand for such dogs by government departments is more than a thousand a year; this figure reflects the number of demands the various departments have placed with the interior ministry.

This comprises 20 by the Islamabad police, 200 by the four provincial police departments, 210 by the Frontier Constabulary Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, around a 100 by FC Balochistan, around 60 each by Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy, 26 by AJK while collectively the Rangers, Coast guards, Airport Security Force, Chief Ministers, Governors and other federal and provincial departments, including the FIA, require another 500.

The use of sniffer dogs by private concerns, including five-star hotels, universities and Islamabad Club, is also on the rise. Asad Ansar trains 70 dogs at his farm in Chak Shahzad. He rents out a dog for Rs40,000 per month for an eight hour shift daily, along with a handler. The Anti-Narcotics Force has also hired the services of Mr Ansari to train their dogs due to high demand.

But the main bulk of the canines' service is provided by the Army Dog Unit, and it is currently overworked. Authorised to train about 380 dogs in a year, the unit is unable to meet the demands of the military, leave alone the government departments now knocking on its doors.

“The primary objective of the Army Dog Centre (ADC) is to provide trained canines for the operations needs of the army,” said the commanding officer (CO) of the unit. “Out of 120 dogs that the unit has to provide to all the corps, we have managed to provide only 93 because of the high demand.” Training dogs for security is a difficult task which requires time and has to accommodate failure.

“Some dogs cannot learn anything,” the CO said. “We have to identify in the first ten weeks of training the role and responsibility each dog is best suited for.” Some of them will prove useless altogether, which is why the unit allows for ten per cent 'wastage'.

The initial training takes up to 28 weeks, while there are refresher courses for the trained ones of around 10 weeks. The latter is also mandatory. These are the norms internationally which the unit works by.

However, the shortage has been aggravated by the fact that the ADC was set up to provide dogs on deputation, which were to be returned after the operational requirements were over. But the security crisis that the country is faced with means that many departments are now interested in purchasing dogs.

The price ranges from Rs150,000 to Rs300,000, depending on the training, age and the abilities of a dog. These are cheap when compared to those charged abroad; an imported German Sheppard can cost as much as Rs1.8 million, says an official of the interior ministry. “Terrorism has been an international phenomenon for the past many years, and therefore prices of trained dogs have witnessed hikes in countries like Germany, US and UK.”

Currently the training centre has provided animals to Navy, air force, Islamabad and Punjab police, as well as customs and ANF. In Islamabad, the dogs are deployed at locations such as the National Assembly and the PM Secretariat.

“We have Alsatians, Labradors and Rottweilers besides a Doberman, used for specialised security jobs,” said a senior Islamabad police official. Alsatians, Pointers and Labradors are usually used for sniffing and detecting explosives and Rottweilers for protecting areas.

“The other main advantage of getting a canine from the ADC is that the dog can understand Urdu as well as training the officials in the handling,” the police official added. The training of handlers is no less important. Holding the leash, they need to know which gesture of the dog means what. The inability to understand what the barking or sniffing of the dog can mean the difference between life and death. “Only due to miscommunication between the canine trained and imported from Germany and his handler, the explosives in Jinnah Hospital Karachi could not be identified,” the interior official said.

The trainer at ADC explained that earlier dogs were trained to bark or scratch at the place where they detected explosives. However, once it was realised that such activities could trigger the contraption set up to cause the explosion, the younger dogs have been trained to stop and stare at the handler. “The handler needs to be aware of the latest signals.”