DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS CHECK OUT RENTERS

Property Management Companies, A Car Dealer, Schools, Even Some
Parents Hire Canine Detectives To Uncover Narcotics

Forty Lower Mainland apartment owners, worried that one of their
suites could be the site of an illegal marijuana growing operation,
have decided that business has finally gone to the dogs.

Sniffers, to be precise. Four of them specially trained to detect the
slightest whiff of anything potentially illegal.

Honey-bun, Mr. Baker, Spot and Ahz are all employees of Canadian
Canine Detection Security and Investigation Ltd., a Vancouver company
that, for $65 an hour, will send their ultra-sensitive noses into your
apartment, house, or commercial company to see if someone has been
smoking, shooting up or doing something else he or she ought not to be
doing.

"Our clients are property management companies, realtors, anything to
do with real estate, owning property or renting property," company
director Margrett Donley said.

"If you suspect that you have a problem, we'll bring out our dogs and
tell you if there are narcotics there. We can't tell if it's [crystal]
meth or marijuana or cocaine, but we can tell you if there are narcotics."

The 40 apartment buildings on Canadian Canine's current client list
make monthly use of Honey-bun's, Mr. Baker's, Spot's or Ahz's
services, Donley said. That means that once a month, but at different
times of the month, the dogs will make a random "sweep" of the
building's corridors and other public spaces to see if they sniff
something they shouldn't.

If they do, the company alerts the landlord who then tells the
occupant of the apartment in question that he or she intends to
inspect the premises in 24 hours, in keeping with provisions contained
in the Residential Tenancy Act.

That means, Donley says, if there is a marijuana growing operation in
the apartment, the occupants have enough time to clear out. But so
far, she says, that's never happened. In the three years the dogs have
been sniffing apartments they have yet to find even one offender.

Four other dogs -- Sasha, Cody, Boomer and Belle -- are trained to
sniff out explosives, and are regularly engaged by cruise ship lines
to go through supplies to be loaded on ship.

They charge $100 an hour, and usually work eight hours each week,
Donley says.

Sham Johal, owner of Dream Motor Cars in New Westminster, says he has
Canadian Canine dogs in once a month to sniff out cars he buys from
individuals or auctions.

"I do it to make sure there's nothing in the cars," Johal said. "The
cars come from various auctions, and you never know what's in them. So
it's better to take that precaution."

The dogs have been coming for two years, and so far have found
nothing. But it's still worth it, Johal says, "because you never know
what's in a car when you buy it."

Canadian Canine Detection is one of two companies in the Lower
Mainland to offer the service.

Rival firm Black Tower Security Services of New Westminster also has
dogs that will sniff out drugs or explosives for private clients.

In fact, the two agencies used to be affiliated until they had a
disagreement two years ago over what Canadian Canine co-director Dale
Crump calls "ethics" and Black Tower owner Robert Jonatschick calls
"training methods."

In other words, all dogs under Black Tower control have also been
trained to "protect their owners." Canadian Canine dogs are simply
sniffers. They have no aggression training of any kind. Black Tower
dogs do.

Black Tower's dogs also have no regular private clients and will only
go out to sniff when someone makes a specific request, Jonatschick
says. But they do get such requests, he says, even from parents
worried that a child has drugs in his or her room.

"If a parent has a suspicion that their son or daughter may be
partaking of an illegal substance, they'll ask us to come in and
search their house."

Black Tower dogs also sniff Abbotsford schools regularly. Last year,
they did about 100 searches, Jonatschick says. The company is now in
the process of setting up a new schedule with the board for this year.

A plan to introduce similar searches of Surrey schools two years ago
was abandoned before it began.

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Howard Chow said while companies
like these aren't illegal, police do have concerns about them.

"What we need is a [provincial] standardization of these security
dogs," Chow said. "It will benefit the security companies and the
public at large. It would give credibility to everyone. Because
failing that, you don't know if that dog out there has been on a
three-day course or a three-year course."

Without that standardization, Chow says, "you don't know what you're
dealing with."

Of particular concern are aggression-trained sniffer dogs, Chow said,
like those used by Black Tower.

"Whenever you aggression-train any sort of animal, you're opening
yourself up to liability and public-safety issues. If the handler
doesn't have control of the dog -- or if the handler is overly
aggressive himself -- it could pose problems, undoubtedly."