Got you with that headline, right? But it’s not a joke.
The Russian airline Aeroflot has a K-9 unit that has received a patent concerning technology developed from studies of how dogs smell, and which has enabled training of dogs to better distinguish types of explosives or malignant cells.
The story seems almost like a parody: Aeroflot uses Sulimov dogs, a special breed that is a cross between Arctic and subtropical varieties, the latter described as a jackal. The official description is “The Sulimov dog is as hardy, unpretentious, loyal and smart as its Arctic ancestor. The new breed took its good sense of smell from the subtropical relative.”
MORE: Aviation Today Photo: Aeroflot
Fascinating. I would have thought the Russians would have trained a dog like this to find stashes of hidden vodka!