Cynologists from the Customs Administration of the State Revenue Service (SRS) continued to expand their professional knowledge and skills in an intensive training in Finland this month. The week-long training was held in Imatra and was attended by five representatives of the Cynologists Department of the SRS Customs Administration, instructors and cynologists with their dogs, who carry out daily customs controls at the external border of the European Union in order to prevent irregularities and criminal offences related to the illegal movement of prohibited substances, goods and cash.
The training was led by trainer Mr. Yuha Pasanen, a training company expert with a long history of previous work experience at the Finnish border Guard Cynology Unit, the Finnish Academy of Border Guard and Coast Guard, and the European border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex.
Adding to their theoretical knowledge, customs cynologists learned state-of-the-art methods of training customs working dogs, learned the latest trends in the field and available technologies. Theoretical lessons alternated with hands-on training for cynologists and work dogs, during which special search exercises, motion coordination and concentration, analysis of dog behavior peculiarities were given great attention. Training planning and other issues were also discussed.
The training visit took place within project No. EEZ/VID/2020/2 “Prevention and combating of economic crime at the border crossing point “Terehova” under the programme “International police cooperation and combating crime” co-financed by the European Economic Area grants.
The improvement of professional competence and exchange of experience in Finland provided an opportunity to complement the skills of customs cynologists to work with work dogs, thus strengthening the ability of the Latvian customs service to prevent and combat economic crimes at border crossing points on the external border of the European Union.
As part of the implementation of the project, specialized training for customs cinema windows was also organized in Latvia in 2022, attracting internationally recognized experts who manage training for law enforcement in the field of cinema in many countries. Using the project funding, training tools have been acquired for the customs cynologists service, which provides an opportunity to develop innovative and efficient training practice at the Latvian customs. Training for work dogs and cynologists, which runs from August 1 to September 30 this year in Rēzekne, is currently continuing through the new learning tools. In parallel, research on the effective use of modern training tools for working dogs training is ongoing.
An insight to the visit in Finland please see in pictures below.
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