A special recruit who can sniff out bombs has joined the ranks of the Bay's crime fighters. The Customs employee, Kahn, has been chosen because of his highly sensitive nose, which can detect 16 different kinds of explosives. The three-year-old golden labrador is the first explosives detector dog to be based full-timein Tauranga, which is home to the country's biggest export port by volume. Machines that detect explosives are available but dogs are still considered the best tool. Senior Customs officer Blair Ridgley and Kahn spent spent two months training at the police dog college base at Trentham before a stint in Auckland. The duo have yet to find any explosives at Tauranga's port. "It's a job you have to be really motivated in because there aren't a lot of rewards in terms of finding explosives, which is a good thing," Mr Ridgley said. Kahn's job is to sniff export cargo and containers at the port. Even if a container is locked up, the canine bomb detector will find any traces of explosives. Bomb sniffer dogs are "passive indicators" and are trained not to bark. That means they sit and stare once they have found an explosive. Kahn is trained to sniff out 16 different explosives smells, from military to reloading powders. If a dog does find something suspicious, Customs officials seal off the area and call in police who then decide what the next step will be. Potential bomb sniffers have to have a strong sense of retrieval - they must "love to fetch all day long". From their Customs base in Tauranga, the pair travel to wharves in Gisborne, Napier and sometimes as far as Wellington's port and Hamilton's airport. With the cruise ship season beginning this month, Mr Ridgley and Kahn will have the job of checking goods being packed into cruise liners. And if needed, they will go on board. Kahn is one of four explosives sniffer dogs to have started work around the country to bolster border security against terrorism. Two sniffer dogs are based in Auckland and a third is based in Christchurch to cover the entire South Island. Kahn is expected to work until 2010.
