“The role of service dogs in the border service is extremely important, because they have a powerful weapon – a sharp sense of smell and quick paws,” – believes border guard Oleksandr Drobot
Oleksandr has been engaged in dog training for 6 years, so he has considerable experience in training four-legged guardians. He says that the most important thing in this business is to love dogs and have a strong character to train such a partner.
“I have an extremely intelligent and devoted partner Kalma. In 2017, she traveled with me to the East, where we performed the duties of guarding the state border for about two years. Then Kalma helped detect weapons and explosives. Then service on the northern border. And now we are learning new skills and training in the direction of search dogs of the border service. Kalma learns to detain violators,” the dog trainer said.
In order to teach the dog to detain violators, the correct grip is produced with the help of special pillows. Gradually, probation violators in special protective suits are brought to the classes.
And four-legged animals must be in excellent physical shape, so for this they are trained on an obstacle course. A service dog must be hardy, not afraid of heights and overcome barriers with ease.
“In peacetime and during war, service dogs are irreplaceable assistants, reliable partners and loyal friends, so very soon Kalma and I will guard the northern borders of our state,” says Oleksandr.