Hi. I am a pet dog trainer in Port St. Lucie, Fl (PetEtiquette.net) with over 25 years experience in DVG,
breeding & training dogs GSD's from 0 to Sch 3, AKC OB, herding, service and therapy dogs.

I have now trained my first narcotics detection dog, and find that as a civilian and as a novice, all the doors are closed and I'm not sure how to proceed, now that we (me and the dog) have successfully completed training and testing.

Alex is a Labrador Retriever who was surrendered to me at 14 weeks by his owner who thought him aggressive. He is now 15 months and his LEO instructor calls him "phenomonal." I could sell Alex in a heartbeat, but I am crazily, stupidly in love with this talented dog. Ultimately, I'd like to put his talents to use in civilian searches a la http://www.sniffdogs.com

But a civilian can't get recognized certification without a dea license, or a job, and who is going to hire a dog that is not certified with a newby handler? I am willing to volunteer our services to gain experience and make connections, but have not been able to meet with any of the local departments. Maybe I'm not talking the talk. But Alex walks the walk.

Damn, the dog's smarter than me.

Hi Cathy..

Welcome to the board. Folks, I can't help Cathy with her problem stated here...but I can sure vouch for her ability with the dogs!

I look forward to seeing if anyone has an answer or suggestion for you!

Certification in and of itself is often misleading. There are only a couple of states that have mandatory certifications for law enforcement. While there are several different "certification agencies", they are associations that depend on membership to survive. While they may play a role in court, for law enforcement, certification by one of the agencies in not a requisite to work. You'll find the documentation of training, continuing training and actual work are particularly important. That said, in a civilian capacity, such as the link you provided, the constitutional protections do not apply. For example, the rules of search and seizure only apply to entities of the government. Within the link you provide, they even state, they are not associated with law enforcement and do covert searches for home owners and businesses. They don't need warrants, or to establish probable cause etc as law enforcement officer do.

I do know there are private companies that provide search services, from my understanding they are "certified" by the vendor. The vendor is doing the certification based on their record in the business and the experience of their trainers etc. NAPWDA will certify cadaver dogs for non-law enforcement, I don't know if they will drug or explosives detectors.

As for the drug license, it's not all that difficult to get. A few federal hoops to jump through, but not impossible. As for being hired by a police department, I'm not aware of any department that hires inexperienced dog/handler teams. Doesn't meant they don't exist, I'm just not familiar with any.

Good luck

DFrost

You are correct that most doors are closed within law enforcement to non-law enforcement. It should be understandable since so much of case law and search and seizure is dependent on training and experience which is part of the documentation process for everyone acting in an official capacity for the government.

My answer is if it is truly important to you to do a portion of law enforcement work, become a officer. If it is important that you train your dog to detect something maybe find something that steps outside of the strictly law enforcement realm.

Now there may be some cross over here where, as David points out, you can do private searches not acting on behalf of the government. Search kids rooms for dope, auctioned cars, or businesses, and even schools. If you are a investigatory firm or work for one there are a couple of organizations that will allow you to participate in a certification exam.

Florida seems to be full of dog companies of one sort or another, I would bet there are soem that do some private searches and maybe a relationship with them would be a starting place??

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showprofile&User=3793

Cathy, send a pm (private message) to Howard Knauf with your email address. Click on the link above to see his profile. He's a LEO in Melbourne who handles K-9's. He may be able to help or point you in the right direction.

I'm not sure how frequently he checks in here,so you may not get a response right away.

Good afternoon Cathy.

Majority of law enforcement agencies do not use civilians for narcotic detection for several reasons including liability and training / certification standards.

In most States, the State Law Enforcement Standards and Training government body requires or recommends the law enforcement K9 team certify atleast annualy with a State or National law enforcement K9 association. Majority of these associations do not allow civilians to be members, therefore you would not be able to testify in court as to your K9 being reliable and certified by a recognized association. If you cannot prove your dogs reliability in court, the cases you assist with could be dismissed (United Staes v. Cedano-Arellano).

The second issue would be liability. If you are assisting a law enforcement agency and you or your K9 are injured, you could technically sue that law enforcement agency. This would not be covered by the agencies Worker's Comp coverage, therefore majority of law enforcement agencies do not want to assume the risk.

I would recommend employment with a civilian detection K9 employer that deploys detection K9's at schools, cruise ships, etc. Good luck to you and I hope this sheds a little light.