MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. -- Marine Corps Air Station Miramar’s Provost Marshal’s Office (PMO) sharpens military working dogs narcotics detection skills aboard MCAS Miramar, California, Oct. 19.
Military working dog handlers frequently train their dogs in narcotic detection through planting drugs in a control training area and testing the dogs on their detection skills. The dogs are tested with a variety of narcotics, including marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines.
“We have to make sure they hit all odors on a weekly basis,” said Sgt. Cornelius Greer, a military working dog handler with MCAS Miramar’s PMO and a Dallas native.
Greer said when planting narcotics for Astor, a military working dog, he has to find discreet spaces where no one would think to look.
“You have to think like the bad guys think,” said Greer. “It’s not going to be somewhere really easy or easily accessible.”
Like Astor, many military working dogs are trained to find small amounts of narcotics.
“We train the dogs to hit small amounts of narcotics so that when they come across larger amounts it’s easier for the dogs to pick up the scent,” said Greer.
Part of our mission at MCAS Miramar is to keep narcotics off base so by conducting narcotics detection training, we can keep our dogs proficient and eliminate any threat to our mission, said Greer.