DURHAM -- The American Kennel Club will host the 2018 AKC US Dog Detection Conference Tuesday, August 28th – Thursday, August 30th, 2018 in Durham, to explore solutions to the shortage of domestic dogs for explosives detection in the United States. The Conference will bring together stakeholders on this issue including: Breeders, Trainers, Government, Law Enforcement, Academia, vendors, businesses, and more.

The American Kennel Club formed a task force three years ago to explore how the AKC and breeders that register with the AKC, might help with the increasing demand for qualified dogs to do this important task and enhance national security. With incidents of homegrown terrorism and mass shootings on the rise, explosives detection is a growing need for government agencies and private businesses. Dogs have amazing scenting capabilities and are the best explosives detectors. The United States has relied on Europe for most of its working dogs and is now facing a shortage of dogs for detection work, due to increased overseas demand for detection dogs.

“Dogs play a very important role in several aspects of our security on the local, national and international levels,” says Dr. Carmen Battaglia, AKC Detection Dog Task Force Project Leader & AKC Board Member. “As the oldest and largest dog registry in the country, we felt that it was important to be of assistance by bringing awareness to this issue, educating breeders and fostering a collaboration that will hopefully lead to viable solutions.”

The conference will cover a range of topics that include scentwork, genetics, breeder education, public policy, the current scope of dog detection, etc., and include a detection dog demonstration.