Canines To Increase Border Security
If you’re planning to run across the US-Canadian border, or the Canadian-US border depending on where you’re from, watch out for the dogs. This Associated Press article was in the Longview, Washington Daily News.
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Would-be drug runners, illegal immigrants and others seeking to sneak across the U.S.-Canadian border will have to try to avoid a wily Belgian.
A Belgian Malinois, that is. The dog named Gordon is one of 14 specially trained K9 units that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is sending to beef up security along the nation’s most remote stretches of border, in northern Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana.
The move will make the region the only stretch of U.S. border where all K9 teams have the most advanced level of training possible, said Robert Harris, the region’s chief agent who pushed to get the dogs added to the local patrols.
“I realize what an asset they are,” Harris told The Spokesman-Review. “What I want to do is give my agents all the best tools, whether it’s a snowmobile, a K9, an all-terrain vehicle or a horse.”
And how are the dogs being accepted by the Border Agents?
Agent Virgil Armstrong, who is stationed at Bonners Ferry, Idaho, with a 17-month-old German shepherd, said the dogs are eager to go to work each day. It’s hard not to be in awe of their dedication and abilities, he said.
“It’s something we say in the K9 community: Trust your dog, your dog will not lead you wrong,” Armstrong said.
So true!
