I was listening to a radio interview today with the Search & Rescue Department (Ministry of Interior) إدارة الأثر and it was both fascinating and sad to hear about using police dogs to help solve crimes or capture criminals.

The department was only set up recently in 1995 in Al-Ahmadi. Initially they started off with 25 dogs and now they are up to 111.

These police dogs are mainly used to sniff out various illegal drugs. The interviewer asked whether these dogs were addicts and that is how they were able to sniff out the drugs. The director said that these special dogs were trained and their reward was not a whiff of the drugs (or injection) and neither any food treats; instead the dog is rewarded by being played with using a favourite ball or toy.

Kuwaiti police dogs are mainly imported from Holland or Germany and they are locally trained.

So how do you suppose they are trained to sniff out human bodies?

I couldn’t believe it. They use imported pork meat. Why? He said because it was closest to human flesh. Amazing.

Of course there was a lot of عزكم الله repeated as they referred to the dogs and pork. 

Who is the police dog assigned to?

Well, it appears that there is a big problem with Kuwaiti men who feel comfortable working with dogs. So that is the reason the department is dependent on foreigners, mainly Egyptians, who handle the dogs. The director said that you really had to love working with dogs to be able to work in that kind of environment. They usually train the employee for 2 weeks before assigning him to a regular dog (one that is not a field dog)

Because dogs are generally regarded as unclean, it is difficult for Kuwaitis to envision this as an ideal job. I think this job should be promoted amongst the younger generation of Kuwaitis and it should also be open to females who are interested in this field.