This little fella came along in 1996 when I attended an Explosives Detection Course, again at Stafford Police Headquarters. I had been given a Border Collie and a Labrador to use on the course and both dogs turned out to be very poor candidates and I was feeling very deflated until an Instructor offered me the chance to work with Bracken.
I immediately realised why the other two dogs were removed when I saw Brackens energy and enthusiasm to work. This little Springer Spaniel would enter a room to search for the explosives and before I could walk in behind him, he had done his search and was running out again! Unfortunately, I had to bring him back in and task him to various sites around the room even though he had already done it!
The sad thing with Bracken was that I knew that he would probably outlast me on the dog section which turned out to be the case and he was eventually rehandled. I later found out that he had died after surgery for eating a plastic bag of all things and a sad end to a wonderful little character.
Again I will refer to Bracken and his training throughout other dog training articles that I post here.
Good training Steve :-)
