The breeds, Belgian Malinois, pronounced mal-en-wah, and Czechoslovakian Shepherd were originally used as herding dogs in Europe. As the breeds have excellent olfactory abilities as well as a high stamina level, they are an excellent choice for odor detection problems.

Many of the working dogs in the United States today were imported from Europe. After a screening process, the dogs are trained for specific odors, such as drugs, explosives and other unique odors. The dogs used by Fern Gulch Canine Services were trained by the Global Training Academy in Somerset, Texas.

Global Training Academy is an international corporation with personnel and detection dogs located throughout the United States and abroad. Locally, the Delaware County Prison, Lancaster County District Attorney, and the City of Chester utilize drug dogs from Global.

Each year Global personnel visit Pennsylvania to conduct a multi-day recertification program to insure the dog's detection rates. A minimal level of accuracy is required for the team to be recertified for an additional year.

Global Training specializes in training passive responding dogs that sit upon locating an odor they are trained to recognize. The dogs do not bark or scratch in an aggressive manner.

“WILSON” 1987-2001
Wilson was our first dog while working for PECO. One of the owners of the Global Training Academy made the comment, “We train many good dogs, and a few great dogs." Wilson was a great dog. During his career, Wilson regularly demonstrated his ability in assemblies at schools. He was frequently called into service by local and federal law enforcement agencies. Elaborate concealment problems were never a challenge for Wilson. The largest seizure, following an alert by Wilson, was 144 kilos (317 pounds) of pure cocaine with a street value of 11 million dollars. Wilson worked till October 2000, over 12 years on the street. The FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspectors, and the Philadelphia District Attorney honored Wilson during his career.

"HADAY" 1998-Present
Haday came onboard in 1999, while still at PECO. He was Wilson's understudy and learned well. A dog with boundless energy and a desire to work, Haday is our primary search dog. In his early career, Haday alerted on a fracture of a cinder block wall at a building in South Philadelphia. As a result of this alert, a search warrant was obtained. During the search, the first Ecstasy lab in Pennsylvania was discovered in the adjoining property. Haday still works with law enforcement as well as in schools, drug rehabs, and corporate venues.

“DON” 1995-Present
Don graduated from the Global Training Academy in 1996 with a detection rate of 95.7%. Don was originally handled by another Global graduate. Personal issues resulted in the handler contacting Fern Gulch in January 2002. Don was re-certified in June of 2002 and has worked with us since then. His presence gives Fern Gulch the ability to perform protracted search problems, especially in hot weather, using a two-dog rotation.