Dillan

The

DOG

Dillan was New Mexico's first School Safety Dog. He could find ammunition fresh or spent and firearms cleaned or discharged. He could find small quantities of ammunition hidden on a baseball field or soccer field, typically in three to four minutes. He could search school lockers, athletic facilities, classrooms, parking lots, and he made an original contribution to canine forensic science doing so.

He was also a Wilderness SAR dog, unusual because he was primarily a trailing dog but also highly capable at air scent. He could go up or down ladders, would work effectively on any surface including boulder fields and edges of cliffs, he could track through parking lots and across bridges, and he searched at night effectively and safely. He could acquire a search subject off footprints.

As a dual-purpose dog his apprehension work was credible, and he was also the guest of honor and participant at a birthday party for a three year old girl and her friends while they played with him on his agility equipment.

In the first photo, he had climbed the ladder (far right) to walk across the elevated expanded metal plank and down the ramp. In the second photo he is coming down the ladder.

In the third photo he has successfully identified the school locker that has ammunition in it. The Kong had been in my pocket throughout the search, I doubt if I was fooling him into thinking it was coming from the locker.

Engaging the suspect was not a problem for him, in the fourth photo we’re working on disengagement, or “aus.”

In the fifth photo he is clowning around after alerting to ammunition in the scent box. The handbag to the left of the scent box has a piece of fried chicken in it, which he ignored.

Plenty of professional trainers and handlers would tell me that something was impossible until they watched this dog do it.