Pups for Peace visits CCKC

Our October meeting included a program from Pups for Peace, an international organization that provides explosive sniffing dogs to Israel. The program included a demonstration by Rocco, a Belgian Malinois who works for the Hamilton County Sheriff. Rocco is handled by Deputy Daniel Kissing.

The demonstration began outside in the Live Oaks parking lot where Rocco found an "explosive" hidden under a vehicle. After about 20 minutes outside, we moved to the meeting area in the school, and Rocco again found a hidden "explosive." Each time he located the explosive scent, Rocco sat at attention, transfixed on the spot where the scent was strongest. Deputy Kissing released Rocco by tossing a tennis ball for the dog to retrieve.

Rocco and the other explosive detection dogs in Hamilton County are available to aid other county and city officials.

Wendy Finch McCusker, an Ohio volunteer with Pups for Peace, presented the remainder of the program. She explained the need for detection dogs in Israel. Founded in 2002 by a group of American Jews, Pups for Peace began to train dogs in California and moved its counter-terrorism training camp for detection dogs to that country in April 2003. The focus of the program is to train dogs to use their remarkable sense of smell to detect explosives and therefore save lives in a country where terrorist suicide bombers and car bombs are a way of life.

For more information about Pups for Peace, visit the website at http://www.pupsforpeace.org.