How to become a Customs Detector Dog handler

To become a Customs detector dog handler you need to be fit and healthy. Good handlers are also quick thinking and possess a strong work ethic with the ability to work to tight deadlines.

From time to time Customs advertises for people like this to become trainee detector dog handlers.

Applicants are short-listed and successful applicants sit a psychometric test. When the results of these tests are received, the remaining successful applicants undergo fitness assessment and a face-to-face interview. Out of this process successful applicants will be offered positions on the next available course.

The basic handlers’ course is a live-in 13-week course in Canberra at the Customs Detector Dog Training Centre. The course is intensive and physically demanding, with trainee handlers having to pass three formal assessments. Once the course is completed, applicants go back to their home regions whereby they receive further training under the guidance of experienced senior handlers.

After three months of this guidance, trainee handlers go back to Canberra for a final two-week assessment period and, if successful, they graduate as Customs Detector Dog Handlers.

Exercise 4. Answer the following questions:

1) What are detector dog teams trained to do?

2) How were detector dog teams trained in the past?

3) What do people need to become a Customs detector dog handler?

4) What is the basic handlers’ course?

5) What assessments do trainee handlers have to pass?

Exercise 5. Scan the text above and connect the figures (1-8) with the letters (a-h).

1. To become a Customs detector dog handler...	a)...fitness assessment and a face-to-face interview.
2. The Detector Dog Programme was expanded to...	b)... Federal, State and Territory police and other government agencies in search operations.
3. Successful applicants undergo...	c)...with the ability to work to tight deadlines with little or no supervision.
4. Detector dog teams are trained to...	d)...you need to be fit and healthy.
5. Good handlers are also quick thinking...	e)...improve training methods and new applications for detector dog teams.
6. The basic handlers’ course is...	f)...include firearms and component parts, ammunition, explosives and chemical precursors.
7. Customs detector dogs also support...	g)...find goods hidden in luggage, parcels, mail, cargo containers, vessels, vehicles, aircraft and on people.
8. Customs is continually looking for ways to...	h) a live-in 13-week course in Canberra at the Customs Detector Dog Training Centre.

Exercise 6. Study the scheme below to speak on drug detection system.

Text 2