More Canadian soldiers have fallen in the Afghan conflict from Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) than from any other weapon. Corporal James Hayward Arnal of Winnipeg was one of them. His family has secured a Mine Detection Dog to be deployed to Afghanistan in honour of our fallen heroes !
Mine Detection Dogs are 10 times more efficient than conventional methods. A dog and his handler can clear the area the size of a football field in 3 days - without the dog it takes 30.
These dogs are one of the most productive and safest ways of increasing the efficiency of demining and returning the land to productive use.
Mine Detection Dogs (MDD) are very effective on indicating where non-metallic or plastic encased mines are laid, since they are difficult
"Jimmy" will help demine areas in the world so children and soldiers can take a step without worrying if it is their last.
CANINE DEMINE
Canine Demine is a program that facilitates the training of ordinary German Shepherd dogs into extraordinary mine detection dogs. These incredible canine demining partners are remarkably adept at identifying the location of mines, without coming into direct contact with them. They smell the explosive charge.
There has never been a Canadian-trained dog killed or injured in the field.
On average in 2009, landmines hurt or killed 5,197 people, a third of whom were children.
Its not uncommon for the explosives used for training purposes to be verty small in qauntity and they do not represent a real-life scenario. When a mine has been in the ground for a long period of time, the explosive smell will have seeped to the top of the ground and cover a large area surrounding the mine.
MDD's are able to search an area spanning 100 square metres before needing a short break. They can focus on their work despite the distraction of humans, vehicles and low level noises and can focus their searching attention for more than 60 minutes.
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