Loyal four-legged friends protect Aviano, deter crime

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Colleen Wronek
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (USAFENS) --  With their powerful jaws, strong sense of smell and unwavering loyalty, they are not only man’s best friend, but also an incredible asset to the 31st Security Forces Squadron.
Aviano’s seven explosive and two narcotic working dogs prevent crime and help protect the base.

As part of their mission to provide protection to Aviano’s personnel and property as well as to be a deterrent for drug users and terrorists, the dogs are always training and patrolling the base.

“While we are patrolling, we might do random searches in base parking lots, buildings, searches at the gate or do base entry point checks,” said Staff Sgt. Justin Devaney, 31st SFS military working dog handler. “We return back to the kennel a few times a day to check on the other dogs, exercise and train.”

Besides searching buildings and cars, the dogs patrol along the perimeter fence and can respond to any incident at any time.

All of Aviano’s military working dogs are dual certified, which means they are all trained to attack and to find either explosives or narcotics. Dogs can’t be trained to find both narcotics and explosives.

“The concept is stimulus. We train dogs to find the explosive or a person’s scent and they receive rewards for detection,” said Staff Sgt. Gene Fonseca, 31st SFS military working dog trainer.

When dogs find something suspicious, their reaction is passive. Instead of scratching, they will sit.

“If there is a bomb, we don’t want them to disturb anything,” Sergeant Devaney said. “The dogs are also used as a deterrent when capturing a bad guy. When the dog is present, people behave 99 percent of the time because they don’t want to be bitten.”

Sergeant Devaney works with two military working dogs -- Nico, a four-year-old narcotics dog, and Allan, an 11-year-old explosives dog. During his 12-hour shift, Sergeant Devaney works each dog for six hours a day.

Aviano’s military working dogs are permanently assigned here, but when a handler receives an assignment, the dog stays and receives a new handler.

“As the dogs get older, they get used to changing handlers. They realize that’s the way it’s going to be,” said Sergeant Fonseca.

Military working dogs do deploy with their handlers, however.

“When a handler goes to a deployed location [their dog] goes with them. For example, we just got back from Torino where we were supporting the Olympics,” Sergeant Fonseca said.

The military working dogs are exercised often and are constantly trained in obedience and other skills.

“They must be exercised every day. The obstacle course is checked every day for safety. It is the handler’s responsibility to make sure the dog doesn’t get hurt,” Sergeant Fonseca said. “The dogs also spend an hour of detection training and other types of training such as bite work, which is done at different levels.”

Bite work consists of using a soft sleeve, hard sleeve or a bite suit.

A soft sleeve is when a dog uses a weaker bite because it’s an arm without protection. A hard sleeve is more advanced, consisting of a large fake arm and the dog can use more pressure. The bite suit is a giant suit that the dog is allowed to bite anywhere except on the hands and the head.

In order to become a military working dog handler, security forces members must cross train into the specialized career field. Handlers must have prior security forces experience.

“Because of the dog’s stronger senses, they can sense more than a person,” Sergeant Fonseca said. “Sometimes it’s better to have a military working dog as your partner.”