DAMASCUS: Customs dog Gordo is trained to sniff out large amounts of cash – one of his recent finds, a large sum of money the authorities were concerned was headed for Syria.
Department of Immigration and Border Protection dog handler David Breslin and black labrador Gordo are regularly tasked to search for narcotics and large amounts of undeclared money.
Moving along on a routine airport search, Gordo’s nose leads the way.
He knows his job. When he smells narcotics or large amounts of money, he sits and fixes his eyes on the person or bag of interest.
This notifies his handler, David Breslin, to investigate further.
“We praise them and say “good boy”, we’ll take the dog away, and if we find out the person has drugs on them, we bring them back out and the dog will sit and we’ll reward him by throwing down the toy in that area,” David said.
Labradors are purpose-bred at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection detector dog facility, and as young pups they are taught to respond to the same reward – a humble rolled up hand-towel that can be used for play after a successful bust.
From the age of two they’re assigned to handlers who begin training them in different odours including drugs, tobacco and explosives.
Mr Breslin has taught Gordo to locate narcotics and currency which are often hidden in strange places and wrapped in layers of plastic.
The odour is obviously stronger the more [money] you’ve got in there, so he’s trained to find that odour.
David Breslin, Department of Immigration and Border Protection narcotics and currency dog handler
One of their recent successes was a large amount of undeclared money located on the body of a man ready to leave Melbourne airport.
