It’s a chilly November afternoon at Luxembourg’s central train station. Teenagers on their way home from school are smiling and pointing at Poison, a two-year Dutch Shepherd. His handler, Igor, keeps a tight rein, though. “I would never let my dog be touched by others. It’s too risky,” he explains.
It half answers one of my first questions. In addition to detecting explosives, Poison is trained to bite aggressors in the event of an attack, and track people.
“If someone makes a certain kind of movement at me, he could interpret it as an attack, and bite.” Ordinarily, that would make it tricky for an interview. But, Igor has given me the key to befriending Poison—dog biscuits, which he hungrily snatches from my hands.
While strict, Igo clearly has a gift for working with dogs. He grew up with dogs and made the decision to become a handler while already in the police, nine years ago. Poison lives in Igor’s home where he is treated like a pet. “He’s a social animal and needs hugs,” Igor explains. But, at work, he needs to be focused.
Ongoing training
Although, fresh out of a one-year training course, Poison still has a lot to learn. In the gare district, where he helps to prevent crime, Poison seems jumpy and distracted by the sounds and smells. These sorts of environments provide a good environment for training.
“It’s not like a usb stick you put in the brain. We train every week, sometimes three times a week,” Igor says.
At the station, we are joined by Inspector Rick Steffen, who explains that it is the city district with the highest crime levels. “Every day there are incidents with fights. The dog is there for the safety of the people and rail passengers,” he says. Igor agrees that even the presence of an attack dog can quickly diffuse a tense situation. “It makes a big impression, because a dog isn’t afraid,” he says.
Explosives training
After patrolling the area, the training changes tack. Igor drives Poison and his retired police dog, Damon, in an unmarked car filled with dog-handling paraphernalia, to the airport. There, he places two suitcases on the floor at one end of the arrivals gate, one of which contains 500 g of Semtex. Poison is unleashed and sniffs in locations indicated with a clicker, used by his master.
He pauses at the case containing the Semtex but his reaction is a little off, Igor explains. Whether it is lack of experience or the distraction of the camera shutter sound, which makes it harder to hear the clicker, it is not clear. “After a few months that will be gone,” his handler says.
UK to Luxembourg
The first police dogs in Luxembourg came from the UK in 1974, according to UK ambassador John Marshall’s LuxUKLinks number 135. Their dog handlers had been trained at Staffordshire police headquarters. Today, the training takes place in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.
At the time of this reportage, 22 November 2018, the police force had 14 active dogs serving the entire country, each specialised in attacking and tracking and either explosives, drugs or arson detection.
Each dog works only with its handler, which makes it all the harder when a dog becomes injured or ill. Igor, who has served as a dog handler for 9 years, had to retire his first dog, Damon, in the summer because of cataracts. The nine-year-old dog lives with Igor and even has his own cage in the back of the car so that he can accompany him to work. With Damon’s problems diagnosed well ahead of the summer, Igor was lucky to find Poison a year ago, from a German breeder.
“It’s easier to find an officer than a dog. No joke,” he says. “You have to visit 10-15 dogs to get the one good dog and then start training, then there may be other things that come, like illness.”