Dog Centre, under CMAC’s ownership, operates with a highly skilled team consisting of 45 dedicated staff members who oversee various critical aspects of its operations. This multifaceted workforce assumes responsibilities spanning dog breeding, both puppy and adult dog training, comprehensive veterinary care for the canines, meticulous kennel dog management, and facilitating other essential refresher courses. The expertise and commitment of these individuals enable Dog Centre to function smoothly and effectively. From diligently breeding and raising dogs to being well-prepared for their arduous tasks and providing meticulous training that hones their obedience and detection abilities, the staff at Dog Centre play a pivotal role in ensuring the success of both landmine/ Explosive Remnants of War (ERWs) clearance and security operations.
To ensure a sustainable supply of dogs in mine action and other purposes, CMAC relies on its own breeding program. The dogs produced from the breeding program are not only for CMAC’s internal use to support its ongoing mission and domestic market but also for potential exports of quality dogs and services overseas.
The program focuses mainly on the selection of quality parent dogs including the consideration of the best age and the best time for breeding. Normally, a CMAC female dog is able to produce offspring on average from 7 to 12 puppies in a litter. About 60 to 70 per cents of the puppies in the litter can be trained to become skilled dogs.
Training for Mine Detection Dogs (MMDs) has to begin as early in the dogs' life as possible. There are critical stages in the dog's life that strongly affect their learning and behavior, and many of these occur in the first weeks. Not every dog can be trained for mine detection operations. The dog must naturally possess certain traits and characteristics which can be developed during training. The process of selecting and training dogs with the potential to be MDDs is extremely difficult and involves the ability to foresee potential in the dog. CMAC has continued to seek new innovations to improve training and deploy dogs in the landmine/ERW areas by diversifying the dog detection skills including the introduction of the current training of cluster munitions technical survey dogs.
