The car was getting off a ferry from France at Rosslare Europort when two-year-old Ralph indicated that he’d detected something and, when the vehicle was scanned with the Customs’ X-ray scanner, the drugs were found. Ralph had detected 53kg of Cannabis resin worth 319,000 Euros and a Ukrainian national was arrested following the discovery.

"Ralph", an English springer spaniel, was found living on the streets as a stray and taken to Bromsgrove Blue Cross where after a thorough examination and assessment the centre made the decision to try and find a new role for him as a “Sniffer Dog”.

Wagtail UK, who has previously trained 3 other Blue Cross Rescue Dogs, trained Ralph, and in less than two months, he was ready for his new job with Irish Customs.

Helen Evans, Specialist Dog Handler/Trainer at Wagtail said, “Ralph was incredibly bright and a delight to train, he is a natural born drugs detection dog, ready to search whenever you got the harness out. Ralph’s enthusiasm and willingness to learn made him a fantastic search dog from the beginning, I’m incredibly proud of Ralph.”

Wagtail supplies specialist dogs and related services to government agencies, including the Police the Armed Forces, Trading Standards and the UK Border Agency, to date their dogs and handlers have uncovered drugs, illegal tobacco, cash, explosives and illegal immigrants, saving millions of pounds in unclaimed revenue, and associated costs.

Wagtail UK are the sole contractor to the Home Office (UKBA) for body detection dogs at the ports of Calais, Coquelles and Dunkerque in Northern France.