New partnership could help find animals homes
PAWS and ARF representatives are happy to make a connection with a training center in Georgia that works with active dogs and turns them into helpful sniffing detectives.
When an employee at Rome’s animal control shelter found out about the National Detector Dog Training Center in Newnan, it was like having just one more chance to find homes for dogs in need.
“It is always welcome to find a group that will say ‘hey, we want these dogs,’” said Keelan Freeman, an employee at Rome’s Public Animal
Welfare Services. “We work with many rescues, but don’t get a lot of places that will call us and say, ‘send us all your beagles.’”
The National Detector Dog Training Center is part of the Department of
Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The center finds and trains canines to safeguard American agriculture by teaching them to sniff out everything from illegal fruits and meats to items such
as animal skins, rhino horn and ivory coming into the country. The dogs prevent pest and agricultural diseases from entering the U.S. through airports, international borders, postal facilities and cargo areas.
Paul Riopel, training technician at NDDTC, said he travels all over looking for dogs to work with.
“About 99 percent of our canines come from rescues and shelters,” he said. “I drive hours to meet the dogs at different places and do temperament tests.”
Riopel explained that the center only uses positive reinforcement to train. Animals are tested to make sure they can be food-driven or toy-driven because the agents use treats and toys to train them.
The center works with beagles, labs and Jack Russells and other terriers, Riopel said. Right now, they are mainly looking for beagles because the dogs handle well and are high energy.
“Many times, we are looking for dogs that have a lot of energy, which is good, because shelters sometimes have a hard time placing those dogs,” he said. “Most of ours can’t find homes otherwise, so we look at it as a win/win situation for us, the animals and the shelters.”
The center has room for 100 dogs.
After being vetted and trained, the dogs go to their handlers — the officers who will do searches with them. Dogs trained in the NDDTC in Newnan are placed all over the world, Riopel said.
“We’ve been here since 2009,” he said. “The program has been in place since 1984. We’ve probably rescued thousands of dogs. There were three centers at first, then they consolidated to one in Orlando, but moved here to Newnan in 2009 and now, we are the only center that does this.”
Dogs from the NDDTC are in places such as Mexico, Canada, New Zealand and Guam. The dogs are capable of finding anything from rhino horn to the smallest chunk of beef that should not be brought into the country.
One of the oddest things they’ve been training dogs to find lately is a giant African snail that is used in Santeria ceremonies. These snails are becoming a problem in southern Florida. The snails eat stucco, which damages homes in the area, Riopel said.
“These dogs can search thousands of pallets in a shipping facility within an hour or two with an extremely high rate of accuracy,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing what they can do. And it saves the agriculture industry an estimated $123 billion in damages. Think about the fruit fly and the damage it causes. It’s pretty important what these dogs do.”
Animal Rescue Foundation of Rome and Floyd County co-president Greta Willoughby recently visited the NDDTC to observe what they do during an open house.
“To know that they are out there, searching for dogs to take in and train like this, it is amazing,” she said. “It gives you hope and it is such a patriotic thing for the dogs to do. They are helping America and other countries. They have good homes with their handlers.”
Freeman said he sees this opportunity to partner with the NDDTC as one more way to keep numbers low at the shelter.
“Our goal is to find a home for every animal,” he said. “This is a great partnership to have.”