Last month the 24 Border Guard Vocational School in Ba Vi District organized training sessions for their dogs. Over 40 trainers and their dogs took part. Video by VnExpress/Son Ha, Hoang Phuong
The school, established in 1959 to train dogs to fight and guard, now also trains them to detect narcotics and explosives and aid in search and rescue efforts.
It has organized over 100 classes with 3,000 personnel and dogs each.
In a simulated scenario at the drill last month, border guards discover a car that appears suspicious. The dogs are instructed to check the car, and they find drugs hidden beneath the hood. Spanish labradors, with their keen sense of smell, are trained to sniff out drugs.
The dogs are trained year-round, but the peak training period is in December since the cool weather helps them be comfortable. In summer dogs with thick coats easily overheat.
After the drugs are discovered, two suspects inside whip out guns and take shots at the officers. Two German Shepherds grab and incapacitate the suspects, pulling them out of the vehicle and preventing them from firing their guns. Officers rush in to apprehend the men and seize evidence.
The school's dogs have been used for several drug and criminal gang busts, including one in 2014 when six people were caught in Son La, resulting in the seizure of 180 heroin packets, 20,000 ecstasy pills and four guns.
German shepherds are among the dogs raised at the school. The breed is large and intimidating, capable of working non-stop for three hours, making them perfect for apprehending criminals and search and rescue.
The dogs dig up the ground and sniff the wreckage in a simulation of an earthquake or landslide. The rescuers were split into two teams, one watching over the area and the other instructing the dogs to look for victims. Rescue efforts usually have to be rapid since there is a threat of more building collapses.
Once a dog catches a scent, it digs the ground and barks as a signal to their handler, who then plants red flags to mark the area for rescuers.
In February last year six dogs from the school were sent along with army personnel to Turkey for search and rescue efforts following the massive earthquake. The dogs managed to find 36 victims, two of them still alive.
Military dogs have been deployed to search for a missing British tourist in Sa Pa, victims of flashfloods in Son La and military officers buried in a landslide in Thua Thien-Hue.
During a challenge to differentiate between smells, the dogs had to identify a particular person from out of eight. Trainers got an object (for odor) from a random person and put it in one container, while the other seven contained soldiers' odors.
They barked to inform their trainers after finding the correct one, and got out of the area if they failed.
The dogs are also trained to recognize and follow orders and signals to crawl, lie on their belly and stand up. Even a single, simple order like "destroy" or "find" can sometimes take months of training before the dogs can follow them.
A German Shepherd performs an obstacle test that requires jumping through fences and fire hoops and crawling on their belly.
A dog's average lifespan is 10-12 years, and it is at its peak between ages five and 10. They have to be at least three months old to begin training, learning their names, playing games and being with their trainers to get used to them.
At six months they can start to learn orders to stand, sit, bark, sniff, and find objects. At one year they start specialized training.
Depending on their breed and individual characteristics, dogs can be specialized for various purposes. Those with a good sense of smell are trained as sniffer dogs, and strong and aggressive ones become fighters and guards.
At the end of the training session the dogs are rewarded with meat and vegetable porridge. In the picture Sergeant Cao Kien Giang is taking care of his seven-year-old Ken.
Each dog has a personal bowl to ensure hygiene. Since the porridge is a bit too hot, Giang stirs it to cool it down.
Giang says: "Ken usually eats on his own. On days when there are new dishes or when the porridge is too hot, I feed him."
