The battle between cats and dogs has been raging on for eternity. Last week the cats fired a volley, showing the world that they can use modern technology to play games. The dogs have now one-upped them. According to Mobiledia.com, canines are now being trained to sniff out contraband phones in a prison in Ohio. The principle is similar to drug-sniffing dogs, but instead of narcotics the dogs are trained to detect the lithium battery that is contained within the cell phone. The dogs are trained by Ultimate Working Dogs, a company in West Virginia that specializes in the training of law enforcement dogs.
With smart phones becoming more and more popular, having them smuggled into prisons is a rising problem across the country. While many are used for entertainment and personal communication, there have been cases where the smuggled in phones have been used to help convicts escape from prison. In fact there was even a recent episode of the A&E television show “Breakout Kings” where a female convict used a cell phone as part of her escape plan.
The dogs treat the searches as a game, going around the prison and simply staring at locations where a phone is located. In addition to the searches, the mere presence of the dog is frequently seen as a deterrent against even attempting to bring a phone into the prison.