Page 30 - Chiron 2024

Chiron K9
by Paul Bunker
In 2004, I retired from the British Army after 22 years with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.
I was fortunate to be offered a position that allowed me to continue my dog training career. I relocated to the United States, initially establishing an off-leash detection canine capability for the Department of Defense before being Program Manager for a canine olfaction research project as part of the Office of Naval Research, specifically investigating topics related to the
US Marine Corps off-leash canine Improvised Explosive Device Detection Dog (IDD) program.
After taking a year’s break from working, I returned to the canine research field, developing an oil
spill response canine detection capability. Again, this included detection canine research and working with academics in olfaction, which I enjoyed.
In 2017, I founded a consulting and training company, Chiron K9, to focus on detection research and training, concentrating on environmental and conservation projects. I have been fortunate to support several canine detection
research trials, which have provided exciting results. In some cases, I have implemented the research
into the field and demonstrated
the transfer of lab-based proof-of- concepts into applied utilization. Several of the research ideas came from my experience in the RAVC.
be used to detect buried oil in an oil spill response. The typical method to find buried oil is to dig holes in the area manually the spill occurred until the oil is located. This is time and resource-consuming, and
often the test holes are negative. Researchers wanted to know if dog
I was invited
by Lt Col (Retd)
Chris Ham
MBE to submit
examples of
the research to
Chiron Calling
to provide an
overview of
some of the work. I have selected three research studies that resulted from my experience with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.
CANINE OIL DETECTION: FIELD TRIALS REPORT - API TECHNICAL REPORT 1149-3 - JUNE 2016
Ed Owens, Helen Dubach, Paul Bunker
This research trial investigated the ability of dogs to detect oil one meter underground. The aim was to investigate whether dogs could
teams could cover the area faster and accurately detect the sub-surface oil. The training program used much of the
knowledge and experience gained from the RAVC/Royal Engineers Explosive Detection Dog (EDD) (landmine detection) program. The dogs were trained in Wide Area Search (WAS) and delineation. WAS is the same as quartering and is used to cover large areas quickly to locate buried oil. Once the oil is located, the dog has a longline attached to its harness, and an out-and-back system similar to EDD/HASD is used to locate the perimeter of the spilled oil (delineation). The imprint process followed the experience and lessons
“This research trial investigated the ability of dogs to detect oil one meter underground”
28 / Chiron Calling