Russians Breed Superdog With A Jackal's Nose For Bombs And Drugs

Part Siberian husky, part Turkmen jackal - a super sniffer dog with an enhanced sense of smell was unleashed last week by the Russian airline Aeroflot in its fight against terrorists and drug smugglers.

The animals are the product of a Russian scientific research project, launched 27 years ago, to produce the ultimate sniffer dog. Their breeders claim that they are much more effective than the labradors or alsatians that are more commonly used in the West.

A name for the new breed has yet to be chosen, although Huscal and Jacky have, apparently, been ruled out.

A new Aeroflot-run kennel in Moscow will raise the dogs and send them to airports where they will patrol and sniff passengers' bags.

"They can sniff out certain explosives that machines can't trace," says Klim Sulimov, Aeroflot's chief dog breeder.

The husky and Turkmen jackal were picked for the breeding project because of their extremely keen noses.

The former has evolved to sniff out the faintest odours in Arctic conditions when the deep cold suppresses smells, while the jackal has a nose more sensitive than its cousin, the domestic dog. Valery Okulov, Aeroflot's general director, says it can detect microscopic amounts of explosives.

The dogs are a quarter jackal. At first sight, they look much like a normal husky, although they are a bit smaller and have a jackal's thick black whiskers.

Siberian huskies are known for their obedience, while pure jackals make poor working dogs. They are too afraid of people and are hard to train and domesticate. They hail from the warmer climates of central Asia and suffer in the Russian winter.

The husky parentage makes the new breed not only perfect for cold-weather work but also easier to train than most other dogs.

Mr Sulimov said: "My dogs combine the qualities of Arctic reindeer herding dogs, which can work in temperatures as low as -70C, and jackals, which enjoy the heat of up to 40C. They're perfect for our country."

So far, 40 of the dogs have been bred. Thirty are working at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 international airport.

Inside one airliner, Mr Sulimov demonstrated the dog's skills. A briefcase full of guns and grenades was hidden on the plane. Mirka, the sniffer dog, was let loose, and went straight to the case, nudging it and whining. It was rewarded with an Aeroflot biscuit.

Security at Russian airports has been a growing concern. Heroin trafficking from Afghanistan and central Asia via Russia has risen rapidly since the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union opened its borders to the West.

Fears of terrorist attacks were heightened by the raid on a Moscow theatre when 50 armed Chechen rebels took more than 750 people hostage in October.

Aeroflot is also hoping to make some money out of the new breed. Lev Koshlyakov, the airline's deputy chief, said: "There is a great interest from other airlines for this new breed."

He claims that each of the dogs is worth about $5,000 (£3,170) and is confident that his jackal cross-breed is a dog that's about to have its day.

Cold War Dog Fight

The Americans and Russians at the height of the arms race realized that if they continued in the usual manner they were going to blow up the whole world. One day they sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with one dog fight. They would have five years to breed the best fighting dog in the world and which ever side's dog won would be entitled to dominate the world.

The Russians found the biggest meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world and bred them with the biggest meanest Siberian wolves. They selected only the biggest and strongest puppy from each litter, removed his siblings which gave him all the milk. After five years came up with the biggest meanest dog the world had ever seen. Its cage needed steel bars that were five inches thick and nobody could get near it.

When the day came for the dog fight, the Americans showed up with a strange animal. It was a nine foot long Dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for the Americans because they knew there was no way that this dog could possibly last ten seconds with the Russian dog.

When the cages were opened up, the Dachshund came out of it's cage and slowly waddled over towards the Russian dog. The Russian dog snarled and leaped out of it's cage and charged the American dachshund. But, when it got close enough to bite the Dachshund's neck, the Dachshund opened it's mouth and consumed the Russian dog in one bite.

There was nothing left at all of the Russian dog.

The Russians came up to the Americans shaking their heads in disbelief. "We don't understand how this could have happened. We had our best people working for five years with the meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world and the biggest meanest Siberian wolves."

"That's nothing", an American replied. "We had our best plastic surgeons working for five years to make an alligator look like a Dachshund."

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