The working outlets that we find dogs for are police, prisons, private security companies, fire service urban search and rescue, other search and rescue organisations, therapy dogs (e.g. medical detection dogs), agility, flyball and other sporting organisations.

When we identify a suitable dog, this is what happens:

• Investigate the dog’s pre-admission history, the same assessments for any dog arriving at Battersea are carried out by the care group.
• Check to see if the dog has the required search drives by carrying out assessments at the three Battersea sites. If the time scales allow, we will complete more training sessions with the dog to develop their ability to search.
• Contact the appropriate outlet to inform them of a potential working dog and arrange introductions.

Recent successes include three dogs going to work in prisons; two have recently completed a narcotics detection course and the third is still in training. A further two dogs will be trained as medical detection dogs and another two will be working with the British Transport Police and are currently in training to find explosives.