Canine ‘super-detectors’: the dogs working to free Iraq from Isis mines | Global development | The Guardian

[Robin Collins]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/26/how-super-detector-dogs-are-helping-free-iraq-from-the-terror-of-isis-mines# 

[Andy Smith]

Thanks Robin.

 

An interesting article that shows MAG following others (such as TETRATEC in Syria) by also training the dogs to find the ‘triggers’ rather than the explosives. But it is journalism so it says nothing new and does get a little confused. It has long been accepted that a close relationship between handler and dog is essential for dog motivation, so their training must include time for that relationship to be built. Training should include training the dogs to run in a search pattern than ensures ground coverage (something no rat can begin to do). And long ago in Jordan, I saw NPA dogs exercising after work in a swimming pool – the poor animals do have a hard time in excessive heat.

 

The plastic mine they showed appears to have been mass produced and have a large explosive fill (not 15kg!) so would be a fairly easy target for a good dog to find after the mine has been in place for a while. With unconventional improvised hazards, the initiation systems may include microwire crush switches, nylon, rubber or plastics that cannot be detected with a metal detector and they may surround the main explosive at a distance – so making a safe approach to detect the actual explosives impossible. The mine pictured had a pressure plate on top with a fuze mechanism beneath that contained some metal, so could presumably be detected using a good metal detector. But it may have had other initiation systems as well (in ISIS patterned minefields, it is common for some random mines to have secondary initiation systems designed to kill those sent to clear them). So the dog has to be trained to find the initiation system and avoid triggering it rather than just find the explosive charge. In urban search, the finding of improvised initiation systems that may be concealed in rubble/rubbish can make the well trained dog the ONLY search method that is practical. This is a time when a search system that is not 100% reliable really is better than nothing. But I would still QA with a second dog repeating any search to increase my confidence that the first dog was “tuned in” today. Both dogs have to be trained using real examples of the actual items they are looking for, of course.

 

It it is a dogs’ ability to locate initiation mechanisms that do not include obvious volatiles that is most interesting. It seems that you can train a dog to locate any apparently inert item in a given environment. This is interesting to me because most research into mechanised explosive detection has relied on locating molecules (parts per million/billion) of the explosive charge on the assumption that this is what dogs detect. It certainly can be - but the dog is detecting far more than that when it finds either a factory sealed munition or a microwire crush switch. In the earlies we called it detecting a “bouquet” rather than any particular flower and I think that is still a useful term.

 

Regards,

Andy

www.nolandmines.com
www.ddasonline.com

 

From: Robin Collins

Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2021 11:17 PM

To: DEMINING

Subject: [HD] Canine ‘super-detectors’: the dogs working to free Iraq from Isis mines | Global development | The Guardian

 

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/26/how-super-detector-dogs-are-helping-free-iraq-from-the-terror-of-isis-mines# 

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