Auburn University is training an elite class of detection dogs
A few blocks away from Auburn University’s acclaimed architecture, business and engineering programs, an elite group is being trained to catch terrorists in the act.
Those that came before them have gone on to work for the New York City Counterterrorism Unit, patrolled Disney theme parks and kept watch over major airports.
But instead of diplomas and degrees, these trainees are content with a pat on the head or an “Atta boy!”
They’re Vapor Wake Dogs – dogs learning to smell the vapors trailing from individuals carrying explosive devices, a technology pioneered and patented by Auburn’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Like the Navy SEALs or other special operations forces in the military, the dogs are the detection canine corps’ elite.
“Only about 10 percent or less of the dogs selected for doing typical detection work will be suitable or capable of doing the Vapor Wake routine because it’s more sophisticated and a more difficult job,” said Paul Waggoner, co-director of Auburn’s Canine Performance Sciences Program. “In part, it’s more difficult because of the conditions they have to work under, being around large numbers of people at concerts, sporting events or mass transit locations. There sometimes are tens of thousands of people around them.”
Auburn’s detection dogs date back 30 years, when the school began researching ways to train canines to sniff out explosive devices. Around 2000, when Anniston’s Fort McClellan was shutting down, the vet school was able to create facilities there to expand the program.
“We developed the first-in-the-nation, academic-based training program for dogs and handlers,” Waggoner said. “People would bring us a problem or a new capability they needed, and we would develop those capabilities. One of those issues was hand-carried and body-worn explosives and how to better use dogs to discover those. That’s where the Vapor Wake technology came from.”
The vapor wake – think of the wake a jet leaves as it flies – is a thermal plume of heat that comes off of people, and if they’re carrying explosives, it has a different odor that these dogs can detect. The technology was first prototyped at MARTA stations in Atlanta and has grown from there. Amtrak was also an early customer.
Auburn operated the 250-acre Fort McLellan facility until 2013 and then licensed its technology to VWK9, a training center and academy that still operates there.
Auburn still owns the technology and still breeds about 60 puppies a year to help hone it, Waggoner said, estimating there are 200 to 300 Auburn-produced dogs working in the field, including 14 working for the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism division.
“The purpose of the breeding program is not to make money,” Waggoner said. “The program provides us with dogs to continue our research.”
Waggoner said Vapor Wake Dogs have been successful, though you’re rarely going to hear about it.
“Law enforcement is sensitive about these incidents and events,” Waggoner explained. “Do we know of situations where Vapor Wake Dogs have interdicted in a recent time frame? Yes, most definitely.”
This story originally appeared on the This is Alabama website.