Meet Lenny and Glen, Armed Explosive Search (AES) dogs of the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP).
The two Labradors and their handlers are on duty at the Show to help make sure Farnborough ‘96 remains incident-free.
The MDP are responsible for all policing and security tasks "inside the wire" throughout the Show.
Packages
The duties include working the two dogs daily to ensure that no suspect packages or vehicles are left uninvestigated.
PC Dave Filler and his AES dog Lenny have been doing daily searches in the Show area since the beginning of August, checking on all construction.
He was joined last week by PC Colin Sheppard and Glen and together they patrol daily around the Exhibition Halls and VIP areas and chalets, as well as conducting a number of random searches.
Ironically PC Sheppard's dog Glen hates noise.
An AES dog is trained to sniff out arms and explosives from any location.
The training takes between four and six months and is carried out by the Army at the Defence Animal Centre (DAC) at Melton Mowbray, UK.
Once trained, the dog is teamed up with a handler and the dog team then spends 13 weeks at DAC completing the training to produce an efficient and effective partnership.
Most dogs start their police life at around two years of age and are retired when they reach nine.
In addition to AES dogs, the MDP also have police dogs and Patrol Arm True (PAT) dogs which are German Shepherds, trained to track and attack suspects when required.
Learned
PC Fuller is no stranger to Farnborough - this is his sixth consecutive Airshow. He has been a dog handler for most of his career, having learned his craft with the Army before joining the MDP in 1985.
PC Sheppard joined MDP in 1984 and within six months had become a dog handler.
Source: Flight Daily News
