Being put through his paces - this Duhok dog undergoes vigorous training at a new K-9 centre in Iraq.
The centre's founders say they opened as a result of greater demand for security dogs throughout Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
A fully trained imported K-9 security dog costs around 10,000 US Dollars, while the locally trained dogs at the centre cost 6,000 US Dollars according to founder Walid Khalid.
"Now, we have our own dogs, it's not local dogs, but it's German shepherd, Malinois, Labrador. We have many kinds," he adds.
The trained dogs can be bought or hired from the centre on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Khalid says that local dogs are good at watching and guarding, but not so effective in bomb detection.
The centre teaches the dogs obedience, and local people can bring their own dogs to be trained at the centre too.
Hussein Faraj, who is an instructor at the centre says they are training the K-9 dogs to be Explosive Detection Dogs and Patrol Detection Dogs, since these are the major services required by the security market in Iraq.
"Both types, the explosion and patrol are mostly needed in Kurdistan, so we use them (dogs) to find a terrorist or a thief in an area," he explains.
According to the centre's founders, they are currently lacking certain professional tools, objects, and materials required since they are not available locally.
So they use regionally made and modified objects instead.
The high temperatures can also be an obstacle to the dogs, particularly if they are imported.
Therefore they breed dogs in order to have newborn puppies that can be raised and trained inside the centre and get used to the Iraq heat.
"Generally the weather in Iraq is very hot. Therefore, the type of dog that is used commonly here is called Malinois. The Malinois type is good and compatible with the weather here, because it's very fit, and it has a low body which is good for the heat we have here," adds Faraj.
K-9 security dogs are used in hotels, security departments, oil companies, airports, military bases and any other building or facilities with security concerns.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have been badly affected by car bombs and suicide bombers due to the ongoing conflicts and instability.
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