Accreditation and Certifications

FINDING THE RIGHT CANINE

Finding a canine that has all the right qualities for scent detection may take months of searching. Only an experienced scent detection trainer will know what qualifications to look for and whether the canine is a good candidate.

REWARDS

When qualifying a canine for bed bugs or any other scent, the trainer/handler looks for a canine that has an insatiable drive for either toys or food. Either reward serves the purpose.

WHAT MAKES A TEAM

The canine then receives its training by a qualified and experienced scent trainer/handler before being paired with its New England bed bug dog detection handler to become a “team”.
A canine or a handler alone is not a “team”.

HOW A BEDBUG SCENT DOG IS TRAINED

Training for bed bugs takes no less professionalism and is no different from training for any other scent.

Whether it’s drugs, bombs or bugs, the process of learning is the same, but the odor is different.

Using vials filled with large amounts of live bed bugs, the canine is taught to identify the odor and when they do, they receive a reward. This reward makes them want to find that odor over and over again.

They sit, paw, howl, bark or make a distinctive but identifiable body movement to alert the handler that they have found the target odor.

Each week the amount of bed bugs in the vial is lessened until they can detect and alert down to a single bed bug.

They are also trained off of certain odors like training tools, dead bed bugs or cast skins so they don’t alert on them.

Then the vials are hidden in different environments and the canine is taken in to find them. This process takes weeks of consistency by the trainer.

When the canine finds the hidden vials with LIVE scent, they are rewarded for their “good behavior”.

They are now “conditioned” to find live bed bugs and they will work very hard to find them for that reward.

THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

Now, let’s talk about the other end of the leash, the handler. Not just anyone who “likes dogs” can just go in, buy a detection dog, and be successful. My first couple of years was spent learning and understanding my role as a handler.

As a handler, I needed to go through rigorous training to learn dog ethology (behavior) as well as learn my dog’s personality and behavior.Being a team takes work. I need to know if my canines are working up to par, if it is having a bad fur day or if it is not feeling well. As a handler, I need to know how to correct my dogs should they need correcting and when to reward them.

Once our confidence as a “team” was built, we went in for accreditation.
Even though re-certifying is not an industry requirement, we train daily, keep training logs, and certify every couple of years to make sure we are on target.
This has been a very exciting and rewarding field for me and throughout the years, I went from beginner to intermediate to advanced handler training and have learned something new every day.

We are a qualified, fully insured Central Massachusetts Bed Bug Dog Detection Service. We specialize in detecting the scent and presence of live bed bugs and viable eggs with the assistance of highly trained canines.

Our bed bug dogs have undergone extensive training by various training centers.
J & K Canine Academy – basic training
Complete Canine1 – intermediate and advanced training
Both dog and handler teams have to pass a rigorous annual certification.
Previous certifications held by NESDCA and IBBMA. Advanced training by IBBRA and Complete Canine1.