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          The deadly job of training demining dogs in Afghanistan
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   (AFP) - KABUL: Besmullah Kalenderi, Afghanistan's top trainer of
   demining dogs, remembers with profound regret the error that cost him
   his left eye and his beloved German Shepherd, Axel, its life.

   "I sent Axel into the minefield when the wind was blowing too
   strongly," Kalenderi told AFP. "That was the first mistake. And I sent
   him in with the wind behind him. That was the second mistake."

   "He stepped on a landmine," the bearded Kalenderi said while cuddling
   his latest charge, Thief, at the dog training centre in Kabul.

   "All I remember was fire and clouds of dust. Axel was dead and I could
   no longer see out of my left eye."

   That was back in 1994, when Kalenderi was demining a hillside near the
   eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad.

   "It was the fourth day of Ramadan," he said, referring to the Muslim
   fasting month which started mid-November.

   "Some Kuchi (a nomadic tribe) saw us working and came to watch. They
   complained that some of their sheep had been killed by landmines," he
   said.

   "I told them to bury five bullets, which Axel then found quickly. They
   then buried 20 bullets and he found them as well. They were really
   impressed and wanted to swop 20 sheep for the dog.

   "But I said I could not as the dog belonged to the MDC" -- the
   German-funded Mine Detection and Dog Centre which is involved in
   training dogs to sniff out some of Afghanistan's 10 million hidden
   landmines.

   The presence of all the Kuchi made Axel lose concentration, Kalenderi
   said.

   "When the wind blows it makes it more difficult for dogs to smell the
   explosive," he explained. "And if it is blowing, they should at least
   be downwind so they can detect anything that is there."

   He added: "In this job neither a dog nor its handler can afford to
   make a single error. One mistake and you're dead -- or blind."

   MDC chief instructor Mumtaz Safi told AFP that in the 12 years of the
   non-governmental organisation's existence seven dogs had died and
   three handlers had been wounded in accidents -- Kalenderi; a handler
   who was totally blinded; and a third who lost a leg.

   Kalenderi is content these days to train dogs from puppyhood to when
   they are moved on to the tricky task of sniffing out explosives at
   about the age of two years.

   He begins by teaching a dog to retrieve a ball, which he conceals in
   terrain which progressively becomes more difficult -- open fields,
   bushland and desert.

   He then starts burying the ball until the dog can find it through
   smell. The most difficult job is to get the animal to sit behind the
   ball when he or she finds it -- not on top of it -- and prevent the
   dog from digging it up.

   After the "socialisation" and "ball training" phases, the animal moves
   on to the "explosives" stage, when a different handler will begin
   putting various forms of explosives found in mines next to the ball.
   "After a while the ball is taken away altogether and the dog must find
   the explosive," said Zainudir (eds: one name), the assistant chief
   instructor at the Kabul facility.

   Each time the explosive is found, the dog is rewarded by being given
   the ball.

   More than 50 percent of dogs fail the grade, however.

   "We are strict, we have to be sure the dogs never make a mistake," he
   said.

   While actually demining an area, two dogs are used. Once one has found
   a mine, the other is sent into the same area to make sure the first
   did not miss one.

   Only then do deminers using metal detectors enter the area and begin
   to unearth the deadly weapons lurking underground.

   "The advantage of using dogs is that they can smell out explosives
   whether the mine is plastic or metal," Zainudir said.

   He said there were currently 136 dogs being used in the painstaking
   hunt for mines, which were planted mainly by the Soviets when they
   invaded the country from 1979 to 1989.

   However, scores more dogs were sitting in their kennels at the MDC
   hillside training centre in Kabul because there were not enough
   vehicles to get them to the field.

   Others were awaiting deployment in Kandahar, which is still considered
   an unstable working environment despite the ousting of the Taliban
   regime from the southern city on December 7.

   The centre was bombed by US warplanes on October 8, a day after the
   United States launched air raids on Taliban targets for the militia's
   harbouring of terrorist suspect Osama Bin Laden.

   Two dogs were wounded in the bombing and most of the others were
   traumatised.

   "Fortunately they are back to normal again now. We can't afford to
   have dogs not 100 percent fit. It puts too many lives at risk," said
   Zainudir.

               - Article added at 2:53 AM (CST) on 1/6/2002.

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