Kharkiv customs officers celebrated the Day of the Dog Handler together with students

On the occasion of their professional holiday, the canine teams of the Kharkiv Customs met with students of the International Logistics and Customs program of the Karazin Institute of International Relations and Travel Business of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

The event was held within the framework of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the State Customs Service and V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

Kateryna Gunko, Curator for Cooperation with Higher Education Institutions, told the students about the customs, its daily work, and what its employees do.
“We hope that after graduation, there will be many of you who want to choose to work in the customs authorities, to counteract customs violations and detect smuggling,” Kateryna Gunko addressed the young people.
Deputy Head of the Anti-Smuggling Department of Kharkiv Customs Serhii Hrytsenko told the students and media representatives present at the event that currently there are 2 dog teams in the sector of canine support and counteraction to illegal movement of drugs and weapons of the Department for Combating Smuggling and Customs Violations of Kharkiv Customs. Sergiy Grytsenko noted that the war has left its mark on the work of the dog unit. The border crossing points are closed and not functioning. Currently, four customs posts are operating in the area of the customs office, which performs the functions of internal customs.
“Despite this, our tasks remain the same - we continue to counteract customs violations and detect smuggling. Of course, most businesses operate in compliance with all the requirements of customs legislation, but unfortunately, there are those who violate customs rules even in wartime. In such cases, the skills of our sniffer dogs come in handy when inspecting cargo,” said Sergiy Grytsenko.
Chief state dog handlers with their pets - Artem Rak with a Labrador retriever named Alvarez and Gia Topuria with a Malinois sheepdog named Amina - demonstrated in practice how to detect caches of contraband and the skills of customs dogs.
The service tandems carried out measures to detect narcotic substances, showed the basics of dog training and were happy to communicate with the youth.
The dog handlers introduced the students to their pets and told them that they were still very young. After all, Amina and Alvarez are one and a half years old. But despite their young age, the service dogs have already been trained by the Department of Specialized Training and Dog Training of the State Customs Service and have successfully passed their professional exams.
The students' interest in the topic of combating customs offenses inspired them to learn even more, and so the customs officers had no time to answer questions.