On July 4, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia has started a training of trainers (ToT) course for dog handling instructors specializing in explosive searches. Held in Lithuania, this three-month course gathers five trainers, one from each country of Central Asia. The ToT course aims to improve the theoretical and practical knowledge during  in-training of canine teams and service dogs used for daily border guarding tasks, including detection of explosives. 

Over twelve weeks the  participants will undergo theoretical and practical training with the service dogs and develop teaching skills for the subsequent transfer of knowledge within their respective institutions. The curriculum of the course is developed in line with the European and the FRONTEX Agency standards. As per the ToT methodology, the training also includes the provision of specialised K-9 dogs and appropriate training equipment, which will be handed over to the trainers at the end of the course.  Upon completion and successful certification, the dog handler-instructors will be equipped with the skills, knowledge and materials to continue trainings within their agencies. This is the first training of this kind conducted by the programme, a similar training course for K- 9 dog handling-instructors on drug searching dogs will start in July in Latvia.  

This ToT is organised in the framework of BOMCA Programme’s Component 2 “Improvement of detection capacities to counter cross-border crime” and is aimed at developing the K-9 teams’ capacities at border agencies.