Page 10 - Chiron Winter 2020

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
by LCpl Bradbury
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is “to maximise the impact of science and technology for the Defence and security of the UK”.
The Defence Animal Training Regiment (DATR) has been working alongside DSTL for many years, and we are currently training 9 specialist search dogs on our very own DSTL Section, whom have joined us at varying stages of
their working careers. Some were specially chosen from our vendors on the European dog buys for their search potential and some were filtered through from other search Sections. We presently have an eclectic mix of breeds; we have our normal working breeds consisting of two German Shepherds, three Labradors and a Spaniel, as well
as our wildcards, which are a Jagdterrier, a German shorthaired and German wirehaired pointer. The latter 3 were chosen in order to test the capability of dogs outside our normal buying specifications
to see how different breeds work in a search environment. DSTL has also been working in partnership with 1 Military Working Dog Regiment for many years on various projects, constantly testing and trialling innovative ways of search and detection techniques. This
is all done in a rapidly evolving
environment where the results can be pushed out and put into practice with young dogs in training and used out in a theatre of operation.
The work that these dogs carry out is designed and tested by the scientists in a way that looks into the capability of a dogs nose; their threshold for detection of certain scents in different environments; and the dogs ability to discriminate target from non-target odours.
When a project is being run, we utilise small metal pots with airholes placed in 8 plastic stands to hold
the discriminate scent that we want the dogs to search for. The dogs will interrogate each pot, with the intent of ignoring any distractor scents that we place out and give a positive indication on the correct one. This technique can be used in all areas of search work to ensure that the dogs successfully recognise the, often explosive, content. The pots allow for efficient and quick movement which is vital when aiming to complete voluminous runs with
9 dogs. It also protects from any ingestion of harmful substances. We can assess the limits of the canine olfactory system by the amount of test substance we use. The dogs always receive a reward for giving a correct response which often comes in the form of a well-loved tennis ball.
Having formed a close friendship with our comrades in DSTL, we tend to meet up a few times a quarter to
discuss the progress of the projects that are being run, ready for the testing phase in order to be able to process results to feed back into the system.
It is hard to underestimate the important role that these dogs are fulfilling. As all search handlers past and present will appreciate, the integrity of the training kits that we use is so important in the success
of our canines, who are trained with the aim of deploying as a search asset.
The partnership with DSTL has been very successful in providing new support to customer-funded research projects to inform key policy decisions. The ability to trial new techniques with these dogs has been very beneficial and has allowed areas of future research
to be identified as well as being presented at international research conferences.
Unfortunately not all of our
dogs are cut out for a career in
the Military and after the current project a couple will be looking for their forever homes next to a warm fireplace in time for Christmas.
8 / Chiron Calling