Accelerant Detection Dogs - Page 1

Does anyone here Train/Work Accelerant Detection Dogs?  I am looking for information on agencies that might employ these teams and what percentage are civilian teams.  How often you might be called into an investigation etc...

Thanks...  :)

I work for a Fire Dept. in Orlando Florida, my Dept. has an Arson unit.  We have Maxine AKA Max, she is a English black lab and trained accelerant K9 who was trained through State Farm Insurance Comp. and is re-certified (unsure how often).  They may be a goog contact for you as they can tell you who they provide K9's for.  They train the dogs, then train the handlers and the team has to pass as a team before being certified to work.  Also call your State Fire Mashall's office they often have one too.  I live in Orlando Florida and those are the only two agencies I know of that have Accelerant dogs.  

Good Luck

Teri 

Thank You Teri.  These dogs seem few and far between.

Shannan  :)

Most of my experience is they are generally police agencies or affiliations due to chain of evidence issues, credibility (and I don't mean personal or any such thing, just remember, we live in the age of CSI and CSI:Miami where everything is instant and above reproach, nowhere near reality).

Teri, good to know in case I end up moving back home to family.......

Question..Any in Alabama of the above???What a mess this state is.

Mindhunt you are right about the chain of evidence, etc.  I was a member of my Fire Dept's Arson & Bomb unit for about 2.5 years and we were required to be LEO and certified EOD techs.  We all moved up throught the fire dept. and were Firefighter/EMT's or Paramedics first.  This gave us a good foundation of fire behavior.  We had to maintain our fire & EMS skills while learning to be a cop, bomb tech. and arson investigator.  Yes it is very unusual combination of skills.  LOL  We also did the internal investigations for any reports of wrong doing against any of our firefighters.  I think it is too many hats for one person to keep up with and be better than average in my opinion. :o)     

I am not sure if they have any accelerant K9's in Alabama but I would check with the local Fire Departments, LEO's or State Fire Marshall's office.  They should be able to lead you in the right direction.

Teri

Ok, Here I go. I don't know a who bunch about who would ask you to come to fire scenes, BUT for credibility you may want to join CADA    www.cadafiredogs.com . The gentleman who proctors the test is a trainer and teacher for Maine Specialty Dogs State Farm program. I will be going this October and am taking the test with a labrador trained by me and this gentleman. I work for him and help with the arson dogs. Also, keep an extensive training log so if you do have to go to court, there is some substance behind what your dog can do. They will not allow you to come to the Maine program unless you are LEO or Fire Dept. No civillians. But with CADA, they are the only testing agency that allows civillians to take the test. It's tougher this year. Last year we had to pass a girl under the rules that were then in force. There will not be a repeat of that this year. Most of the people that train the arson dogs are under contract and cannot devulge the training secrets. There are only a handful of people who really know how to do this properly and the higher ups want to keep it that way. Hope this helps a bit. Maybe I'll see you in October.

Melissa

did you train with Shep? and his dog Midnight? they are retiring and as far as I knew they had been the only ones in maine. When I talked to him last he said they were working on another one to take Midnight's place, but he was not going to do it any more..............

I'll ask if Maine has any K9s in Alabama. I'm not sure. ATF may also, you may want to check with them.

I'm in Fl, and the gentleman that I work with and for is also in Fl. He goes up twice a year to teach the class.  Miami also has one of our dogs. She was in the last class.

Basically you have to know someone. For practice you need burn buidings. Try and find out if there's a fire academy close by that you might be able to borrow their building. What's the worst they can say? No?? I'll be using Volusia Co.'s and the one in Ocala. The dog that I have is ready to go now. She's super with the sniffing. I can not get paid for going and doing an investigation because of who I am affiliated with, BUT I can do school demos and pro bono work. Again, its who you know. I have a few people I know in the FD who may allow me to come in and do fire scenes, and they may not. Won't know until I try.

Melissa