Russia's Airport Security is in Good Paws

New Breed

Here is an interesting story from Russia. With the ever-present threat of terror the airline security companies have started using dogs to "sniff out" bombs and explosives in addition to specialized machines. 

Russia, however is not using just any old dogs! They have developed a completely new breed of super sniffer dog that can out sniff other dogs and  even machines. 

After twenty-eight years of breeding experiments, Klim Sulimov, Aeroflot’s chief breeder, was able to  develop this unique dog. This new breed is the result of crossing an Arctic Lapinporokoira with a Golden Jackal from Turkmenistan (not exactly a family pet).

The super smell comes mainly from the genes of the Golden Jackal as well as the ability to "search independently". Generally, search dogs work by command, but this new breed is a self starter, and hits the ground running.  Nobody needs to tell them to start work! The Lapinporokoira, used for herding reindeer in the Arctic are very fast and very agile.

Lapinporokoira

It is the combination of  these and  other qualities that will enable them to perform anywhere in the world. 

Arctic reindeer herding dogs  (Lapinporokoira) are a hardy breed and are used to working in temperatures as low as -70C, while the jackals enjoy warm weather~all the way up to +40C!

As they are heralded as "probably the best sniffer dog in the world" I have no doubt the demand will grow for these amazing canines. The articles I have seen all indicate that Russia is closely guarding the new breed and will not be selling them as family pets any time soon!

Golden Jackal~Plus 40C!

They begin their training at a very young age, using an old Tu-154 jet as their training facility. There is even a special vehicle to transport the dogs wherever they need to go.

 Needless to say there is a great deal of interest coming from other airlines. Some of the dogs are already on loan to airlines in Russia and there are plans to sell them abroad as well. A price of about $5,000 each was mentioned in one article.

As a point of interest, this new breed does not even have a name yet, although I  did find some references to the Sulminov Dogs.  I don't know how new breed are assigned their formal "breed type name" but it should prove interesting to find one to nail down the uniqueness of this one. Maybe they should have a name contest and award a puppy to the winner....hmmmm.

Now, I am waiting for screaming from the Muslim world!~as you know, they hate dogs...