Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.The Russian flagship airline Aeroflot has officially registered its very own breed of dog with the Russian Cynological Federation. While this might sound unusual for an airline, Aeroflot is no newcomer to the area of working dogs. The company is well known for its sniffer dog program that is used by the airline as well as at airports.Frequent flyers will be familiar with the sight of working dogs in airports. Aeroflot’s program has been in operation since 2001 and currently has 50 dogs in its program. Aeroflot uses a hybrid breed, the Shalaika — a cross of Lapponian herders and Turkmen golden jackals — specially developed for the airline by Klim Sulimov. Sulimov was on hand for the announcement at Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO). The dogs were presented by Aeroflot’s Deputy Head of Aviation Security Azat Zaripov, and Deputy CEO of Sheremetyevo Security Akexander Shalov, who discussed how the airline as well as the airport use dogs to ensure safety for both passengers and aircraft.Aeroflot is continuing to push forward with its sniffer dog program. It has also developed an olfactory monitoring system. The system uses hardware and software, which includes special gear for dogs. The system is designed to help identify substances the working dogs detect and relay that information to an operator’s computer. The new technology will be on display in 2019 at the Eurasia 2019 international dog show.All images courtesy of Aeroflot.
