THEYRE the sharp-nosed members of the WA Police doing a job that humans cant in the war on drugs.

The canine detectors are some of polices most valuable crime-fighting tools, able to sniff explosives and drugs even in tiny traces.

Its a skill set that keeps them busy, with drug and explosives detection dogs involved in 855 searches, or roughly 70 a month, in the past year.

In that time, the team of 16 dogs 14 trained to detect drugs and two for explosives with their 10 handlers have uncovered 1.5kg of methamphetamine, up to 30kg of cannabis and more than $1 million in cash.

PerthNow was this week invited to see how these super-sensory detectors stay ahead of the pack.

As part of ongoing training to upskill the canines, Titan, a 4-year-old Labrador, was taken through his paces by handler Sen. Const. Kiera Redden at the vacant and run-down East Perth Watch House building and successfully found the methamphetamine and ecstasy stashed in various hiding spots. His reward was his favourite chew toy rolled up towels.

Sgt Nick Berragan, patrol and deployment supervisor at mounted and canine operations, said people kept coming up with ingenious methods to try to mask the smell of drugs in a bid to fool the dogs but the animals werent beaten by that.

The dogs, trained in either active or passive alerts, could filter smells to detect drugs through other odours.

For example, at the recent Groovin the Moo music festival in Bunbury a sniffer dog managed to detect ecstasy pills which had been wrapped in plastic, placed inside a metal canister and inserted into a lemon.

They find drugs when theres no other way they would be found. They find them in underground safes, underground sea containers that have been buried, Sgt Berragan said.

Quite simply (many) drugs wouldnt be found if we didnt have the dogs.

Sgt Berragan said the old watch house was an ideal training ground because the furniture, equipment and distracting odours helped replicate real-life obstacles.

In a change-up, he said the detection dogs, the vast majority being Labradors, were being socialised more with other people and animals to ensure they worked better in crowded environments.

Police are reviving the practice of having dual-purpose dogs, capable of general purpose and detection work.

The first recruit is 14-month-old Malinois, Maygar, expected to be posted to Port Hedland soon.

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WA Police dogs fighting the war on drugs - Perth Now