Story and photo by Spc. Heather Denby
Special to GUIDON

Fort Leonard Wood hosted a Specialized Search Dog certification last week, at various training areas around the post. The certification was open to all canine-certified handlers and is an annual requirement to maintain their skill identifier.

The E8 skill identifier is used to denote military police, engineer, and special forces Soldiers that are trained to handle specialized search dogs.

On Fort Leonard Wood, all Engineer military working dogs belong to either the 49th Engineer Detachment (Mine Detection Dog), 67th Engineer Detachment (Specialized Search Dog) or the 94th Engineer Detachment (Specialized Search Dog), Engineer Canine Company, 5th Engineer Battalion.

“We are a mobility asset when we have missions that require us to search an area,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jaime Castro, Canine Company kennel master.

Currently, Fort Leonard Wood is home to the Army’s only engineer canine specialized search dog unit.

“Specialized search dogs are non-aggressive, they do not attack and bite, they search for explosives as a single-purpose dog whether it is C-4, TNT, dynamite stick, or whatever the mission calls for,” Castro said.

The week-long certification covered open area, warehouse, vehicle and building searches.

Certification depends on successful completion of each search by both dog and handler, working as a team, said Rodolpho Meraz, U.S. Army Forces Command, military working dog trainer and certifying authority.

“If handlers aren’t looking where their dog is looking, they’re not using their tools,” Meraz said.

Tools are essential to the accomplishment of the mission.

“(These tools) are very important, it’s like graduating from any other school, without it they can’t move forward,” said 2nd Lt. Kaman Lykins, 5th Engineer Bn. observer. “You can’t drive a car without a driver’s license.”

(Editor’s note: Denby is a photojournalist assigned to the 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.)