Hong Kong will receive another gift from the central government in the Year of the Dog - a team of mainland-trained sniffer dogs to detect drugs.
And language will not be a problem - the dogs have already learned English commands.
The head of the customs detector dog unit, Senior Inspector Lam Kwong-fai, said it would be the first time it had received sniffer dogs from its mainland counterparts. Six dogs are expected to arrive this year, with six more in 2007.
Their handlers will attend a six-week course at the mainland's drug- detection-dog training base in Yunnan to befriend their partners before returning to Hong Kong together.
The gift will go a long way towards easing an impending shortage of dogs in the customs department caused by mass retirements and the opening of new border control points. Nineteen of its 29 sniffer dogs are due to retire.
A sniffer dog will usually spend its whole working life with one handler and their handlers also often leave the dog unit at the same time for other customs units as part of their career development.
