He is the best boy who was instrumental in 380 drug seizures worth more than €26m for Revenue and Customs. Now Robbie the highly trained sniffer dog can finally put his paws up after retiring from fighting crime.
During his six-year career the springer spaniel, who went off the clock on December 14, played a key role in locating smuggled illegal drugs and cash totalling almost half a million euro.
But despite his high-profile job which saw the nearly eight-year-old working in ports all over Ireland, the only thing that really made Robbie wag his tail was his love of chewing tennis balls.
“Everything is done for the tennis ball,” said his loyal handler Sarah, who is going on maternity leave to have her first baby and bringing her furry colleague along for the journey.
She was assigned to work with Robbie in 2018, and the pair developed a successful partnership and bond.
“He’s a cash and drugs dog,” said Sarah.
“That’s what he is trained in, and all the dogs all have their roles and specialists’ skills.
“I know him like no one else, and that is the way it is for dog handlers. You’re not supposed to get too close to your dog, but you can’t help it.
“I am having a baby, and so I felt this was the right time to let Robbie take a step back. It all fell into place. He had an operation on his back leg last year and while he is still as enthusiastic as ever, and can scale huge heights, I want him to enjoy some fun time and he can’t really do that when he is working. Being focused and not distracted is part of the job.
“That means I can’t leave him with my mother, he has to go into a special kennel if I go away, and he would never get a treat. I have to do continuous training every day, but that can all ease now for him.
“Robbie has been of great service to the country, but he will never know it, he hasn’t a clue, so he deserves a nice retirement now and he’ll be with me, I wouldn’t let him go now, we have been through a lot together in this job.”
Robbie is one of 25 detector dogs in the canine programme for the Irish Revenue and Customs.
Over the years, the detector dog teams have assisted in finding significant quantities of drugs, cigarettes, and cash derived from criminal activity, and their detections have led to successful convictions and disruption to illegal activities.
Other well-known highly trained sniffer dogs include Milo, Waffle, Laddie, and James — who are all based in Dublin Port.
“Waffle is tobacco and cash, and James the labrador is drugs and cash,” said Sarah.
“All the dog handlers talk to each other and learn different skills because you’re always learning, but with the dogs, only their handlers know them best.
“We are also now faced with criminals who are trying to beat our dogs’ ways of sniffing out things, they are triple vacuuming things sometimes and we have to keep on top of that.
“That is why we have scanners and x-rays and the dogs, just to triple-check something. So, if we don’t find it, the others will.”
The vital work carried out by the dog units is regularly highlighted by the Revenue.
The latest figures show so far this year up to November 30, there have been 2,316 cannabis (herbal and resin) seizures around the country worth €55.96m.
While there have been 104 seizures of cocaine and heroin worth €195.19m as well as 6,487 seizures of amphetamines, ecstasy, and other illegal drugs worth €8.12m.
There is also a huge market for illegal cigarettes here and in 2023 there has been 4,795 of seizures amounting to 68,016,881 cigarettes worth €54.46m.
Revenue officials and sniffer dogs have also made 1,557 seizures of tobacco with a quantity of 10,070 worth €7.62m.
Alan Foley, national detector dog programme manager for the Revenue Commissioners, said: “We are hoping to have 30 dog units next year. All our dogs are trained to detect cash coming through the ports. It's normally to do with the proceeds of crime.
“Dogs here are trained to detect a density of cash, a wad of notes, they wouldn’t just detect a couple of hundred of euro on people passing through airports, they are looking for bulk amounts from people trying to take money in or out the country to buy drugs or weapons.
“Our dogs are trained to detect whether it's euros or sterling, they can locate in bulk. There is activity online for money laundering, but cash is king, and some dogs are dual-scented — whether that is drugs, tobacco, cocaine, heroin, ketamine, cannabis, both resin and herbal.
“There is no negative training we build them up and give them confidence. They have to go into dark containers for searches and we have to ensure safety, not just for the handler but for the dog.”
Among the cases Robbie has been involved in was a seizure of €6.2m worth of illegal drugs found in hot water cylinders in a trailer that arrived at Dubin Port from Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 2021.
The huge shipment was found carrying 93 kilos of herbal cannabis with an estimated value of €1.9m and a further 62 kilos of cocaine worth an estimated €4.3m on the street.
He also sniffed out 9.4kgs of herbal cannabis with an estimated value of €188,000 at Dublin Port in April.
The illegal drugs were discovered concealed in the cab of a truck that had arrived from the UK.
Alan continued: “Our staff are trained in profiling, and we also have x-ray machines, a lot of our staff are also trained in asking certain questions.
“Then cars would come off the ferry, they would be met with customs officers, and they might be selected for searches, the dog would run around the vehicle and go into the vehicle.
“The handlers know to watch for, such as a change in behaviour of the dog.
“They might check 6 or 7 trucks in a row but with the next one they might be more active and there could be a bigger scent and he is struggling to locate it.
“As a handler, they would know there is something here maybe between this truck and the next one.”
Despite their training, they are not always successful in their searches.
“They are just dogs at the end of the day,” said Mr Foley.
“Our handlers are very well trained, so they try to make sure the dogs are focused on their intended target, so we don’t want them going after meat or dog food.
“They are trained to go past this, but that is down to the handler. We spend a lot of time training and conditioning and keeping our dogs on point.
“That is part of our distractor training that is done every single day for a couple of minutes. A lot of work goes into this and it’s constant.
“Everything they do is a game; they want to keep on playing and looking and when they do their work, they are rewarded with the tennis ball, which Robbie will showboat around the place. They love the praise of their handler.”
The dogs are trained in the UK by specialists for up to 18 months before being paired with a dog handler.
“The initial training for a new team is eight weeks,” said Alan. “Six weeks of that is done in the UK.
“The dogs themselves have been pre-trained for months, but the dog team, which is the handler and the dog, get their training then.
“The handler would be involved in the dog’s development. It’s all about repetition and trying to stick to that or you can have a setback and you have to start again. Each dog is also different so there is no one solution.
“They then do environmental training for the area they are going to be based in.”
Sarah said she soon realised that the more work Robbie did in the port, the more he preferred it.
“Once you get to know them you can see what they are suited to,” she said.
“He loves it in the port, and I only work with him. I would not handle another dog I would not know how to read him. I knew he preferred the port.
“While we are based here, we could work anywhere. I have worked with the gardaí, CAB (criminal assets bureau), and the military police, it is very varied,” she added.
The dogs are also transported in a specially designed van if their skills are required in a different part of the country.
“It is a job like no other and it is 24/7,” she continued. “I have to go home, walk the dog, groom him, do checks, and training and vet checks. There is a lot that goes into it. It’s not about who likes dogs, it’s a unique role.
“It is a great experience and a fantastic job.”
Robbie was 18 months old when he was paired with Sarah. Some sniffer dogs can be younger when they take up the role.
“They can be one to two and a half, that’s usually the window,” said Alan.
“It’s just getting them out of that puppy phase.
“We also have rescue dogs who do the training. Our dogs are not obedient, we want them to be bold and very independent and know their own mind.
“They are structured but Robbie becomes conditioned from doing the searches, he knows where to start when searching a car and knows where to end. He is a pro.”
The dogs also don’t receive treats as it can disrupt their training.
“You don’t want them food driven or tasting human food in case they pick it up in cars,” said Sarah.
“They can be distracted but shouldn’t get distracted but that comes down to the training.
“That is why you wouldn’t give him to another handler for a few weeks if you were sick or going on holiday”.
Robbie received a well-deserved hero’s retirement party at Dublin Port as he departed from his role as one of the best sniffer dogs in the country.
Inside the Revenue building, his kennel which was alongside his fellow sniffer dogs was decorated with balloons and a banner that said, “Off the clock”.
But despite all the recognition he has received, including a Golden Paw Hero Gog Award from The Irish Kennel Club in August, Robbie took his last day all in his stride.
“He is a very happy dog,” said Sarah, “It’s a joy to work with him”.
Alan said when it comes to retirement, “they will always have the want to search”.
“His body will fail before his mind,” he said. “But in years to come if Sarah comes back in here, he will want to search, and you see that with the retirement dogs that come back”.
However, retirement means Robbie will be allowed in the house now.
“He can come up onto the couch now and we don’t have to keep the training going,” said Sarah. “He is well used to people; he has done years around all sorts of people.
While Sarah will return to work after her maternity leave, she will be in a new role, meaning her work and life balance will revolve around being a mother and dog owner.
“I would not have gone for another role if Robbie was still working,” she said. “He is part of my family.
“I knew he was coming to the end of his career, so he is entitled to his retirement now. They all adapt he will be ok.”
Alan added: “His confidence will come through Sarah too and that is the importance of the one dog handler. He knows her tell-tale signs as much as she knows his”.
Sarah said that has become evident in her pregnancy, “He knows I am having a baby; I feel he is gentler and more snuggly he is my best friend; he is my third arm. He knows”.
Meanwhile, Robbie was only too delighted to show off his extraordinary skills at sniffing out illegal goods for the on his last day.
Watching his handler, he first searched the outside of a car before sitting patiently after finding something worth investigating.
He then searched the inside of the car and sat still until Sarah came to uncover what he had located.
After an exciting search, he then waited patiently for his tennis ball which he chewed and rolled across the floor with.
“That’s his lotto,” said Sarah. “And he never gets tired of the excitement of it all, there is no bigger delight for him than the tennis ball, if only we were all that easy to please.”
In a statement, the Revenue said: “Although our detector dogs are stationed at strategic locations, they are deployed anywhere they are needed and work in tandem with Revenue anti-smuggling teams who routinely operate at all main ports, airports, and mail centres, and in freight forwarding premises. Our detector dogs assist in screening passengers or postal packages, searching warehouses, commercial and private premises, all manner of vehicles, freight consignments, and air or sea passenger baggage. They also support regular nationally coordinated operations, many of which are carried out on a joint multi-agency basis, including, in particular with An Garda Síochána”.
