Establishing the Biosecurity Detector Dog Active Response Program
Casey Baines:
Hello everybody and welcome once again to Detect and Protect, the Australian biosecurity podcast. I am your guest host; Casey Baines, and we’re continuing our special series to celebrate last year’s 30th anniversary of the biosecurity detector dog program. The program plays a vital role in the interception of biosecurity risks in the airport, mail, and cargo environments. Our detector dog’s excellent agility and super noses make them one our most effective and loveable detection methods.
Our guest for today’s podcast, and the last of our past handlers we’ll hear from, is Clare O’Shannessy. Clare had multiple stints in the program, which cumulated to a total of 14 years service.
Biosecurity detector dogs first started sniffing out risk at international airports. But due to their massive success in airports, the program expanded into international mail centres.
Clare played an integral role as the program grew to deploy active response dogs to screen mail. She talks us through the initial steps of detecting mail and sourcing various dog breeds to be developed into detector dogs. She also outlines how the detector dogs assisted in creating profiles for high-risk cohorts importing goods through the mail.
Let’s jump into the interview and hear some of Clare’s amazing firsthand stories!
To start off, could you give us a bit of an understanding of how you joined the program and how long you were handler and where you were deployed?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Sure I was, I joined, the detector dogs in 1997, so I started with the department in 1995. And yeah, obviously worked in a number of as a back then, quarantine officer, but biosecurity officer in a number of different sort of operational areas, got some exposure I guess to the beagles at the airport when I was working, in that area of operation. From there they were deciding to expand the active response teams, so that would be working in the mail and import cargo so air courier areas of operation and they’ve done I guess had a pilot of initial dog which was Rowdy, he was up in Brisbane.
Casey Baines:
Was he the Blue Heeler or the cattle dog I think you sent some photos of him yeah.
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah, so he was initial one and then from there decided to expand in Sydney. So yeah in that I thought that was interesting. I’d guess I’d had a bit of experience in the operational sense so in terms of what I could bring to the role, it was that I’d had a bit of bit of operational experience. And then I’ve got my background is I’ve got an Ag science degree and majored in animals. So you know, I have a keen interest in animals. And you know, outside of that, I have my own animals, horses. So I was keen on you know training and it was an interest of mine anyway.
So yeah I guess that’s why I put my hand up thought it was interesting challenge and yeah jumped on board, went through the, at that time it was an 8 week eight week training program at Hanrob and that was run with Steve Austin was the contractor trainer at that that point. And got teamed up with my first detector dog. So on that course there were four of us, 3 ladies and a man and of that the three ladies stayed were deployed in Sydney. I’ve just had a mind blank as to who, the guy was and I think he might still be in the program or not long out of it. Yeah, he went to Brisbane and worked out there, so yeah.
I guess that was that was that we had back in that time. Obviously there was a, the response we were sort of split into two active response and passive response detector dogs and so as part of that active response team we were working in the mail and air cargo areas. And at that time, all the mail we did, all the work was at the Qantas Mail handling unit so right at the at the airport. And yeah look it was pretty challenging, it was pretty much you know, the three, the three of us that started.
Had to lean on each other a fair bit to do the job, there were no work instructions. There were no instructional material on how you, how you went about it. It was essentially “here’s the mail, go and find something.”
And I worked, I was in the active team for until, until about 2000. So I’ve been in the department for 27 years. It’s just coming up to my 27th in September, so yeah, of that time I kind of moved in and out of the detector dogs at various times and but all told sort of been in dogs for about 14 years of that 27 years. So you know, I’ve got a real, have a real passion for it over the years in the department and really you know I think it’s, it’s um yeah, I really enjoyed my time. So that was sort of the first those first years and then yeah, I went off and did some export stuff for a while and then came back into the program and that’s in 2000.
At that time I think we just started to get, sourced some, a contract with border force in getting a supply of Labradors. So prior to that all of all of our dogs were, so when I started they were all rescue animals or donated dogs or whatever and much of our time even as handlers was what we used to call road testing dogs for their suitability for the program. So over the course of that first few years we were, you know we put out campaigns to the public if you like and in terms of you know have you got a dog that suits these this criteria. You know do they have a high you know do they want to play ball all day or whatever it is. So we would go out as handlers and go and road test various people’s dogs that they thought oh we can’t for whatever reason they couldn’t manage them or they had that sort of really high drive that might have been suitable for our purposes. So yeah that was an interesting component as well as that not only were you developing your skills as a handler, but also, applying your knowledge for assessing dogs and selecting for, you know, potential recruitment into the program. So that that was a good thing.
Casey Baines:
That would have been really exciting.
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah it was. It was good and bad like the upside of it was when you found one and you got them into the program as you know and you could see them develop and get teamed with a handler and become successful in the field. The downside was that you looked at a lot of dogs that weren’t suitable.
Casey Baines:
And they’d have to go to a shelter or something like that?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah, yeah. And we did do, we did go to animal shelters and RSPCA and stuff like that. So I’ll send through, I’ve got a bunch of articles and things and photos from when I started and of that crew of detector dogs, my first detector dog was a Red Cattle Dog cross foxy type mix and she was an RSPCA, I think rescue along with one of the other original active dogs Lupa who was a Rottweiler cross Cattle dog. Yeah and then and obviously you saw Rowdy and there was another cattle dog Ricky that that was in that first program.
Casey Baines:
So when you look back do you have one go to story, or one interesting find that you tell people when they ask about your time as a handler?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Ah look I think there’s heaps but I think for me, I guess in that first, those first few weeks that we that we started in the field. You know I was pretty excited to be the handler that found, that had our first find in Sydney so that was some fresh lavender, so some lavender cuttings. So that kind of always sticks in your mind, that’s the first thing that you think. Well you’ve done all this training and now I’m in the field and yeah look what we’ve come up with and so I was pretty, pretty excited to yeah, to have that I guess on the list of things of achievements that I was you know, had the first finding in Sydney. The other, I guess there was a couple of, I think probably also, I think I was the first handler my detector dog found, she found some live turtles and you know, you don’t expect it in the mail but they were. And I remember, yeah, that was quite. Yeah, look not something that you’re expecting and I recall the handler that was assisting me, the surprise on her face when we realised what was in that package that you know it certainly opened your eyes to things.
And I mean I guess also what was interesting at that time was that, you know, we, because the mail hadn’t been, heavily screened by detector dogs. At that time it was basically randomly I think selected by officers. I don’t think it had been. I think some of it was x-rayed, but not, you know, not the majority. So you know, by having the detector dogs go over it, we came across a number of different, I guess trends and things that seasonal trends that we discovered and that previously weren’t known. So things like you know heading towards the festive season that Christmas that a particular, countries would send fresh springs of conifer in their mail as part of that festive thing. It was a traditional thing. I think that that’s probably one of the things that I’m proud of as well is that as a cohort we started really that forefront of risk based intervention in terms of being able to identify trends and seasonal occurrences of things of high risk and then going ok.
We would target, particularly around Christmas time, all mail from Germany or Austria or those types of countries because we knew that, we were getting yeah, pretty much every second package would have a piece of plant material in it and you know I guess that’s something that really, it gives you that boost of you know you’re doing something you know you’re being effective, you’re stopping these things coming in. So um, yeah there were things like that, we would find. So yeah, I think conifer was one, packages of a particular type of sausage that they would send through.
So all of those things were really well you know, I think. And given that I’ve got a I guess the science background, I kind of understand that the consequence if that stuff has potentially has FMD or foot and mouth disease or can bring something in. So you know I guess all of that ties into wanting to get the best out of out of your assigned detector dog.
And later on when I came back, yeah so I’ve sort of been through three periods of time I’ve been with detector dogs. So I came back in, 2000 and then to 2004 and then I got a promotion as a supervisor. And so I took that and then I came back in 2007 it was and then to 2016 I think as and I was a tech super for that period. The whole, you know, developing your own dog, but then it’s coming back as a technical supervisor that whole developing a team and getting the most and helping that whole, coaching and training handlers to get the best out of their team as well.
Casey Baines:
Especially because as well when you started you had to sort of set the ground yourself and find the best way things happen. So being able to impart that knowledge again to your team after it must have been pretty rewarding.
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think you did learn a lot. I think in that being able to yeah give the next handlers coming into the teams that extra knowledge and understanding so that you know every time someone comes along we’re improving what we’re doing. I think it’s really rewarding.
Casey Baines:
So an interesting thing that you mentioned for me was, you went from active dogs and you’re around when we first started to get Labradors from ABF, did you see benefits or difficulties that Labradors had compared to the active dogs that we had or compared to the beagles that were in the airport?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Um, look, I guess having worked in the active side of things, we did work alongside Border Force and customs pretty well. So I guess in those early days we did actually form quite a good relationship with those handlers in Border Force because you know that they’ve been doing it for a while so being able to bounce some questions on them. We obviously had some support from Simon Mills who was up in Brisbane. He was the supervisor, but he was in Brisbane. That was probably the start of remote supervising.
So yeah we did sort of utilise what was at our disposal around us and ask questions and get some additional feedback on that. And I think certainly the consistency of the dogs drive and their characters I guess were, some of those initial, I think Labradors that we got weren’t probably the top tier from their breeding group and perhaps we just got what they didn’t want any more type thing but the leftovers. But you know as the years went on I think we got a more consistent dog from them and I think.
Yeah, it was I think it has helped the program to have that, you know, good baseline standard of dog that’s got a good drive. Yeah, I mean, as I said the beagles were certainly, in their time and how we used to operate, they certainly did an excellent job at the airport. There was a couple of beagles actually we trialled, and certainly the work in the mail that the Labrador is a bit more robust. But there was a couple of beagles that they did try to see whether they could work in the mail environment. And probably just in terms of how we were operating in the beginning and much of it was done a bit more labour intensive and or things weren’t, how do I put it, laid out as well in terms of a search. We were searching parcels in ULD’s, so unit load devices so where they have the packages. We were just having to throw them in there and they’d dig around and hopefully and then you know if they did a response we just have to pull packages out and lay them out on the ground sort of thing. And so it was very much labour intensive and probably you know that medium size dog was going to be better suited to it.
But not to say that you know some of the smaller dogs their agility, um and especially working at. So we did, in the beginning we would go, to air freight bonds as well. We would go to the likes of FedEx, TNT, UPS and DHL, the big 4, what they call CAPEC bonds. Yeah, we would go there and that was again was pretty dirty dusty environment where you were searching cages of packages. There were you know FedEx had like a shoot ramp area that you would just sort of throw the dog up there to go and search.
So you it was it was kind of different environment in that regard. But yeah I think it’s that consistency of drive in the animal and also their temperament, I mean you know I love the Labradors. I think in terms of how they’ve come along in the program have certainly proved their at adaptability to be able to you know be multipurpose dogs and work in both environments.
And I guess some of the other. We did, I think after we commenced with the multipurpose deployments, there was a phase there that that we needed additional dogs and I was involved in identifying and putting forward a proposal. We had some active response Labradors that we even though they are in their sort of, more mature part of their working life. Yeah we did a proposal and we did a conversion where they, they became multi-purpose dog, so it’s probably not the usual process. That in itself was a really kind of exciting in that it wasn’t the usual way that that multi-purpose dogs are brought on, they usually start in the passive environment at the airport and then they progress to the mail. So the challenge of going back the other way, it was certainly really rewarding to see them then go into the work, working in and have that ability to adapt and work in the airport environment as well. Yeah it was, it was good. Lot’s of fun.
Casey Baines:
Obviously, the department has just done an external recruitment round for handlers for the first time in a long time. When you think back as your time as a handler and as a tech super particularly, can you think of some attributes that, really people with them, thrive as handlers?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah, look, I think a couple of things that I always thought stood handlers in good stead. Was really the curious nature. So being prepared to think about things, being prepared to try things, take on feedback on how you’re working. But you know have that curious nature to investigate, explore things, have an understanding. Obviously have a good basic understanding of the principles and be aware of the principles of conditioning dogs and how you’re training them. And part of that you know you’re only going to get the best out of out of an animal if you’re working with them. So understanding that, that is fundamental.
I think that having that curious nature and willingness to come to work in a, I guess with an attitude that there’s always something new to learn. So and I think those that did that certainly got the most out of their animals, their dogs and in terms of, ok they were willing to think through a problem. The dog, I don’t know has got a false response problem on a particular thing, always hits, always responds to chocolate or something. But work through what that plan is, to try and work out why that is. And then you systematically work through a training plan of how you’re going to work through that issue with the dog. So that sort of analytical, I think as well as curious and whether you can have a combination of that. I don’t know, I think you can.
But also I think that the handlers should come into it with a passion for what they do as well. The thing that I, probably kept me going with it was that, you know? I felt that whenever you found something high risk, you felt you were doing something, you know? You were achieving something, you were certainly stopping potential pests and diseases coming in. So yeah, that whole taking an interest in the background of why you’re doing what you’re doing, I think also helps as well.
Some understanding of that and yeah passion for what you do. You know that you’re making a difference so to speak and you know if everybody in the team is thinking that way you’re only going to get the most out of your dogs and people. And ultimately, I think most handlers that come into it are, do come into it with a passion for what they do.
Some handlers have had a science background, some had an animal handling background that they wanted to work with animals. Equally those types of handlers have been successful over the time that I was there.
Casey Baines:
It’s really interesting how you say more problem solving and analytics, but really you’re working as a team, as a handler and a dog. So people with animal handling backgrounds and people with science backgrounds need to work with their dog specifically to understand their dog before you can understand what you’re doing as well. Really interesting to hear.
Just thinking, given you’ve had a few stints with the detector dog program, can you think about a typical day as a handler or a what your day might look like? I know you were in active role and then you’ve also had multi-purpose dogs, but can you run us through what sort of a typical day might be as a handler?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah so look, I can only go from when I finished up, but I guess it depended where you were, where you were rostered for that day. So obviously when I finished up, you worked, we were working both in the mail environment and the airports, so depended where you were rostered for that day.
I guess at that time we were, when I first started, obviously the responsibility of the dogs. We would either be allocated to pick them up from the kennels and then get them to the work environments. Then usually you would start, like for example, for the airport it might be a pretty early, pretty early start. Especially back in the in the days when we had the dogs housed at Eastern Creek. So there, it was a pretty good hour. You were starting at 4:00 in the morning to get to the airport by a sort of 5.00, 5.30 start type thing. You would obviously get the animals there initially. Get down to the screening hall area, there would be obviously within the team, at that time we would usually be covering two halls, so two arrival halls. So you would determine which teams would be in what hall. And usually we’d communicate with the operational supervisors there on what flights were coming in for the day and then get prepared. We’d usually have a bit of a short period of time where we could do a little bit of training beforehand just to set up some brief training runs. And if the handlers are working on something in particular, we’d set up a particular training run to work on what whatever they’d identified needed improving. And then get ready for the first flights to come in. Usually at that time, depending on whether it was a risk assessment officers or parts of a whole flight depending on how it was directed to us, it would come through and obviously we’d worked together as a team to set up a screening run and screen passengers as they came in. Set them up appropriately and then hopefully we find things.
Casey Baines:
So you yourself have been quite successful and you said you’ve been in and out of the program a fair bit. Is there any particular things or things that you took away from being a handler or being part of the program that you think helped you develop into your period to where you are now?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah, look I think that it certainly has helped me to be you know, obviously I’ve in managing handlers as a supervisor that certainly set me up with some good leadership skills. Managing handlers and dogs adds an extra sort of component to things. And not only are you looking after the welfare of the people you, you’re also responsible for the dogs in the team. That sort of add an extra component to it. I think it set me up for being able to multitask on things and work through some challenging issues.
I think also because we were, the handlers were working in multiple areas, different operational areas I think it really helped me, I guess to develop that network and understanding of the department as a whole and how everything fits together. Maybe not so much the handlers but certainly as a tech super you have that awareness, you’re interacting with people across various levels in the department. And then and I think it certainly sets you up well for stakeholder engagement type. You know understanding and you’re working out of, out at the gateway facility, you’re working with Australia Post, you’re working with, there’s certain a particular demographic and culture of people that tend to work out at the postal area. So you’re working alongside Border Force in in all areas. So yeah, that whole ability to manage a team and have them work well alongside and other agencies and stakeholders, I think really set me up for that that kind of, those skills in negotiation and working together and collaboration.
Because none of what happens in our operations happens in isolation. It’s always with either other members of our own organisation at the airport and you’ve got your team, but you’re again part of a broader team. So yeah making sure that not only I operated in that way, but the handlers understood that as well. That yeah, it was something that I think was a good experience.
And that whole I think that ability to yeah, starting out where we had very I guess minimal guidance on getting something, making something successful. I think that you had to be pretty, have a fair bit of ingenuity in how you went about operating and so I think that helped as well, just that drive to want to see it succeed. You know where there’s not guidance material, working through what’s the best problem solving, what the approach is to best not only for you, for yourself as a handler and a worker how you can best work, but how’s that going to play out in terms of getting the best out of your assigned dogs. I think all of that stuff certainly has stood me in good stead over my career. And look, met some really great people I think that’s the other thing is that the people that I’ve worked with along the way. Yeah, fantastic.
I guess that whole, you know handlers are generally passionate people and so we’re all there for the common good and usually, you know are quite enthusiastic people. And honestly, even on your worst day, you knew that if you were turning up and working your dog, your dog’s always going to be happy to see you. And it’s, it’s that rewarding, you know? What other job do you get where you reward and play with the dog for and get paid for it?
Casey Baines:
I guess that’s a colleague that’s always happy to see you every single day no matter what.
Clare O’Shannessy:
So that side of it, you know that always keeps you, keeps you coming back next day, you know?
Casey Baines:
Yeah, for sure. You mentioned you had horses, did you ever get the chance to adopt a working dog from our fleet to come home with you or you just have your animals yourself?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Did I? Did you have any?
Well, that that one in the middle, that one, unfortunately, she’s passed away. I only had to get her put down about, oh it’s not long, about three weeks ago now but she was the last of my detector dogs. So look, as with most, I took and homed all of the detector dogs that are that were assigned to me over my years, so my original detector dog. Then I had a so the cattle dog cross she came home with me. Then the Labrador Prince had him he was, you know, and then another Labrador Winter and another Labrador, Max. And then Quianna, who I wasn’t directly assigned to Quianna but she was in my, the team that I managed and the handler. Yeah, so I worked her anyway during her working life but the handler couldn’t take her so I was more than happy to give her a home because she was a lovely dog out of our team. She, yeah she managed to, I think she was 14 and 11 months before she passed. So, you know, good innings and yeah loved having them home but I didn’t I didn’t get an opportunity with any of the beagles but not to say that, you know. Yeah, most, as I say, majority do go with their handlers once you’ve been working with them for any length of time, you know, you just want to give them, give them a good life after when they retire.
Casey Baines:
Sounds like you have a lovely home with lots of very happy animals.
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah fortunate, fortunate. Had and during that time, I’ve got a couple kids now and the kids, certainly the Labradors were just really fitting into the family and you know were super, super good mates with the kids so yeah.
Casey Baines:
That’s good to hear. Look we might wrap up but I have one final question for you. Do you have any advice to anyone who might aspire to be a detector dog handler or any wisdom that you can impart?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah look, I think my advice is be interested. Be curious. Find out all the information that you can. There’s plenty of you know, I think there’s so many opportunities to get an understanding of what the detector dogs do and potential exposure to them. Obviously if there’s, we certainly when I was in the program we were happy to give people opportunity to get exposure and talk about what we do and how we do it so that they’ve got some basic understanding. But be curious and interested and I think have fun, have fun with it. Really that’s the main thing. Like you’re there to do a job, but certainly to maximise what you get out of it, out of a relationship with a working dog you need to be happy to be there and have fun. So I think appreciate that you’re in a unique position and you know, it’s not something that everybody gets to do. I think that was that’s that was all your questions.
Casey Baines:
Yep. That was everything. Thank you.
Clare O’Shannessy:
Though there was one question I did read a question that was, who was your most famous?
Casey Baines:
Did you have the one in particular that you met?
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah, I did. I had to do a clearance of Julia Gillard when she came in. So I went across to the aircraft and did a clearance with, well had a beagle at that time, one of the beagles. So yeah, that one, that one was pretty notable. She didn’t pay as much attention. But anyway.
Casey Baines:
And I assume you didn’t get anything you found.
Clare O’Shannessy:
No nothing, didn’t find anything. Which is good. Which is good.
Casey Baines:
Yeah, very good. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day, I’m sure it’s very busy. We’re planning to take a clip or two out of the interview, which we’ve got up on the department socials in the next month or two. And then at the end of the year, we’re planning to do a, a wrap up, maybe a documentary length something or a montage of everyone that we’ve talked to and everything that we’ve done for the 30th anniversary, so we’re super excited.
Clare O’Shannessy:
Yeah, I’ve got a bunch of pictures that I can probably send through of previous, in the early days. And I’ve got a interesting newspaper clip out of the Australian from when we first started, the actual the minister launched did a launch. You know back in the day that was pretty exciting that I think he’s John Anderson, I think he was the minister. Did a launch of the, the detector dogs at the mail centre. So there’s been a bit of an article on that which was which is good. So I can send that through.
Casey Baines:
Thank you so much for that. And we’re also getting some show bags to boost our merchandise. So I’m sure you’ve seen the plushies, but we’ll send you a show bag which has a bunch of different 30th anniversary stuff as a thank you. So thank you so much again. Thank you and have a wonderful afternoon.
Clare O’Shannessy:
Ok. You too. Thanks. Bye.
Casey Baines:
I hope you have enjoyed today’s episode of Detect and Protect. You can find our more information on the department’s website or by visiting biosecurity.gov.au. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast series to get updates on future topics and learn more about Australian biosecurity. Also be sure to follow us on our social media pages. Thanks very much for listening everybody. And we will catch you on the next episode of Detect and Protect.