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Drug-sniffing dogs are now for
hire
October 20, 2010 - Baltimore Sun
Catering to concerned parents,
nonprofit uses canines to ferret out
marijuana and other contraband
Underneath the mattress isn't going to cut it. Neither will tucking it
behind the stack of "Twilight" books. Not even pushing it deep into the
toe of a smelly gym shoe.
The dog will find it. And he'll know it's not oregano.
A new service in Maryland is promising parents peace of mind by
allowing them to essentially rent a drug-sniffing dog, a highly trained
canine that will come to their house and within seconds, detect even
the tiniest whiff of narcotics. The program allows ordinary moms and
dads access to a search tool typically reserved for law enforcement —
and typically aimed at suspected criminals.
Dogs Finding Drugs will, indeed, uncover teens' stashes. Whether those
kids talk to their parents again remains to be seen.
Anne Wills, who runs the just-launched, Catonsville-based nonprofit,
says parents are clamoring for the service and she expects business to
"explode."
"I know that when my kids were growing up, every once in a while I'd
have liked to know what they were doing," says Wills, who's having her
own Labrador-mix, Heidi, trained to become a drug-detection dog. "The
need is there. The desire is there."
Drug-sniffing is a fresh turn for Wills' organization, Dogs Finding
Dogs, a nearly 3-year-old group that until now has used the skills of
search dogs to find missing pets. Heidi and the other search dogs
affiliated with the program have traveled all over the region, helping
to reunite nearly 300 wayward dogs and cats with their frantic owners.
Besides targeting parents who suspect their children are dabbling in
drugs, Dogs Finding Drugs is offering its services to companies and
schools. Its dogs, which are all certified K-9s, can detect marijuana,
heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines, as well as prescription drugs
with trace amounts of those narcotics. The dogs can also uncover guns
and explosives.
The rate is about $200 an hour — more or less depending on the
circumstances and scale of the search.
Michael Gimbel, the former "drug czar" for Baltimore County, is helping
Wills promote the service, the first of its kind in the area, but one
of a handful of similar programs that have popped up across the country
in recent years. He considers it a way for parents to, as he puts it,
protect their home.
"Bottom line is, parents need to use every resource available to
protect their kids from drugs and their home," he says. "This is just
another new and creative way to attack the problem."
The success seems to vary for other companies offering drug-sniffing
dog services. In Arizona, Amy Halm started Desert Drug Dog earlier this
year. She says business has been "hard going" but "growing." In the
Twin Cities of Minnesota, John Roux started Metro Canine Detection
Services in 2002. Schools fill out the bulk of his customer base — he's
got 25 schools as regular customers and expects that number to double
within the year. In New Jersey, a company called Sniff Dogs that got a
lot of fanfare when it launched two years ago still has a website, but
its phone has been disconnected.
This week, Wills and trainer Janet Dooley took Zuko, a 6-year-old
Belgian Malinois, to a home in Churchville to demonstrate the dog's
refined skills of detection, testing him with planted drugs. The
regal-looking shepherd dog has been training with Dooley since he was 8
weeks old. He was, quite literally, born to find drugs.
Zuko is on the alert as soon as Dooley leads him inside. Ignoring a
house cat, he immediately trots up the carpeted stairs and enters a
bedroom, ears perked, tail in the air, wet nose twitching. Dooley
points him to the bed with its neatly arranged pillows, and then to the
nightstand, the dresser and the closet. Zuko passes each by with little
interest.
But when the dog approaches an upholstered chaise in the corner, he's
immediately more animated — running from one side of the chair to the
other and pushing his long nose into the cushions.
Finally he just sits calmly beside the chair. That's the signal. He's
found something.
It's a small canister with the tiniest trace of marijuana residue — so
little that a person can't smell it even right under his nose.
"Good boy!" Dooley says, throwing Zuko his ball and giving him an
appreciative slap on the flank.
Down the hall in a guest bathroom, Zuko uncovers more marijuana even
more quickly — standing on his hind legs before the vanity, he stares
down a box of tissues. Sure enough, the canister with the light scent
of contraband was hiding in the box.
Dogs Finding Drugs won't confiscate anything it finds. Nor will the
group notify the police — though Wills says she will recommend folks do
that on their own.
The best way for parents to handle a child's potential drug problem
begins with a good old-fashioned conversation rather than a
drug-sniffing dog, says Elizabeth Robertson, the National Institute on
Drug Abuse's chief of prevention research.
"Given everything we know about substance abuse prevention, what you
want to do with your kids is build trust and communication," she says.
"This seems like a tactic that would disrupt trust."
And she suspects that clever young people who've been burned by the dog
— or fear they might be — will devise ways to game the system.
"If you are a kid who was hiding drugs in the house and somebody
brought a drug in the house, what would you do? I'd hide it in the
yard. Or hide it in someone else's house," she says. "It doesn't seem
that practical."
Baltimore parent Genny Dill agrees with Robinson. Upon hearing of the
service, she says slowly, and with increasing notes of incredulity,
"No. Really? Crazy. Absolutely crazy. That's a whole new level of
distrust."
The mother of a 17-year-old girl, Dill says she has no trouble peeking
at her daughter's text messages and e-mail. Though she's wondered if
her daughter has tried pot, or been offered drugs, Gill is fairly
certain that by hiring a drug-sniffing dog, she'd ruin their
relationship.
"They're never going to love you again," she says. "Well, maybe they'd
love you, but they will seriously not trust you as a parent, and when
they're teenagers, that's a terrible time for that to happen."
But Kelli Lewis would want to know if there were drugs in her home —
and she'd consider hiring the dogs if she suspected a problem with her
son, who's a senior in high school and set on going away to college.
"Drug use is so rampant," says the Baltimore County mother. "I'm not
very worried about it with him, but it's definitely on my mind — I know
a lot of things can happen in school."
Lewis knows her son would be upset if she had dogs go through his room
— but she doesn't much care. She says: "If I felt the need, I would do
it."
"We talk about the kids' right to privacy and in my house. They don't
have a right to privacy," she says with a little laugh. "If they're
doing anything in here they shouldn't, I have a right to know about it."
Quote: Lewis knows her son would be upset if she had dogs go through his room — but she doesn't much care. She says: "If I felt the need, I would do it."
"We talk about the kids' right to privacy and in my house. They don't have a right to privacy," she says with a little laugh. "If they're doing anything in here they shouldn't, I have a right to know about it."
There is such a thing called parental trust... And when a kid senses that his/her parents do not trust him it is almost impossible to build back up that trust again.
Quote: "Given everything we know about substance abuse prevention, what you want to do with your kids is build trust and communication," she says. "This seems like a tactic that would disrupt trust."
Bingo. This shit might have been ok and acceptable in the 40s and 50s but not today. Whatever happened to sitting down and talking with your kid honestly? I would have disowned my parents if I ever found out they brought a drug sniffing dog into our home.
-------------------- D Manoa said: I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin.
Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), me if you have any for trade
And after said son or daughter's parent calls a narc dog to run through their belongings and privacy, should they promptly call the police to arrest their own children and hurl them into the ugliest, most fruitless and detrimental system we call "Justice"?
-------------------- "The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others - the living - are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later"
Quote: "Bottom line is, parents need to use every resource available to protect their kids from [some]drugs and their home," he says. "This is just another new and creative way to attack the problem.
I bet he has an open liquor cabinet, a six-pack of beer in the fridge, and a couple of packs of cigarettes lying around the house. If not, then somebody else in his organization does.
Quote: The rate is about $200 an hour — more or less depending on the circumstances and scale of the search.
i bet the dog that did all the work only gets a measly biscuit or something, man i fuckin hate freeloaders...i seriously doubt they would not call the police if they found something they thought was significant.(they prolly have some kind of deal with the police) the parents might regret "calling the dogs" once there door gets kicked in and house ransacked at 7 am...
i will NEVER demean my children with a fucking drug sniffing dog. if this is where parents feel they need to turn, maybe they need family therapy
-------------------- notapillow said: "you are going about this endeavor all wrong. clear your mind of useless fear and concern. buy the ticket, take the ride, and all that.... "
ChrisWho said: "It's all about the journey, not the destination."
Quote: Dogs Finding Drugs won't confiscate anything it finds. Nor will the group notify the police — though Wills says she will recommend folks do that on their own.
Really? She will recommend parents to call the police on their children? This is the stupidest idea that I have ever heard. I would never have trusted my parents again if they did this.
-------------------- Leaving the shroomery forever
It's brilliant capitalization on the War on Drugs is what is is!
Foul and despicable though it may be
-------------------- "Your accountants are waiting in the West wing, sir." "Tell them I'm sick." "Shan't have to lie. That refugee charity called..." "Write them a check." "And the Committee for the Prevention of Obsessive Behavior in Middle-Aged Men?" "Write them a check." "Very good, sir. Your sense of humor is as keen as ever, sir."