Jackie is more effective than detectors

(From Framsyn Magazine 5, 2006)

Mine detector dog Jackie provides invaluable help in finding safe areas where there are no landmines. Jackie and her colleagues are more effective than humans and are capable of searching 700 square metres in a day. The Swedish Customs Service is also using explosives sniffer dogs and now has around 50 in service.

Jackie and Stefan Kärrman are a team. They are also inseparable friends. And they are very good at finding mines. Or, perhaps just as important, at finding areas which are safe. The market price for a trained mine detector dog could be a quarter of a million Swedish kronor. The dog would be about two years old and could be expected to work until the age of eight or nine before being pensioned off as a detector dog.

The dog is not a substitute for other means of detection but the dog can do something which no other detector can do, namely differentiate between metals and explosives. A metal detector can give several thousand responses over just a small area. But the dog reacts only to the explosive substance. This does not mean, however, that the dog has found the mine. Over time the explosive can leak out into the surrounding soil. That is why Anders Tengbom, who heads Swedec’s R&D section, believes that the detector dog can best be used for area reduction, that is to say finding the limits to mined areas.

The quickest way to clear mines is to start by using a machine. But that is not sufficient to declare the area safe. That is where the dog comes in. In addition other methods, such as metal detectors and probes, can be used.

In a war situation the military do not clear mines, they force a way through. Time constraints are often such that a clear path has to be forced through, for example by ploughing, to allow troops to advance in reasonable safety. Civil mine clearance is something different. There is more time to clear the mines while, at the same time, there are quite different criteria for the results required. In this case the area needs to be safe enough for children to play football there.

Compared with manual mine clearance, dogs are very effective. Two dogs can work for six hours a day. One will work while the other rests. The dogs can clear as  much as 700 square metres in a single day. A tenth of a football pitch. One demining operator can clear perhaps ten square metres in the same time.

The dog is amazing. But how does it do it? This is still something of a mystery.  The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) has helped to disperse the fog somewhat through their Odour Signature Project. Mona Brantlind, one of the scientists working on the project, explains what is involved:

“Explosive substances in Swedish soil do not smell the same as they do, for example, in Africa. This is because the bacteria in the soil are different. And it is the bacteria that eat, or rather break down the explosive substances. We undertake chemical analyses of what it is that the detector dogs find. When dogs are brought into a new environment they need to be re-taught in that location. They are allowed to find explosive substances and are rewarded each time. After a few weeks the dogs are ready to be used.”

The method was developed at FOI by Ann Kjellström who now works for the Swedish Customs Service which relies extensively on so-called sniffer dogs and is building up a special laboratory facility. There are currently 53 teams consisting of sniffer dogs and their handlers.

Analysts at FOI have also developed a method which can give information which is useful in the context of the clearance of unexploded ordnance. This information constitutes a good tool for surveying areas of activity on old firing ranges. It provides a means of substantiating verbal information as to where the former target areas were located. Soil samples are collected from a limited area and these are then mixed and analysed. If traces of explosive substances, or products of their breakdown, are found in a sample, the area from which that sample was taken should be searched using dogs or equipment such as ground-penetrating radar or metal detectors.