Exercises

A dog�s life

Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post

The old saying �you can�t teach an old dog new tricks� certainly seems to be proven true in this week�s story from the Bangkok Post. Read about two sniffer dogs who lost their crime-fighting credentials and ended up chasing chickens.

Old habits died hard for former street dogs Mok and Lai. The dogs were removed from a prestigious job at Chiang Rai Airport because they could not shake the bad behaviour that they had learned during their years of living on the streets, police said.

SMALL MISTAKES

Authorities need well-trained sniffer dogs to help prevent drug smuggling. Thanks to their hard work and talent for the job, Mok and Lai quickly became favourites at the airport.

The dogs obeyed the rules and did not make any serious mistakes. The small errors that they did make were enough to get them barred, however.

�He liked to pee on luggage while searching for drugs inside,� Mok�s former police handler Jakapop Kamhom said. �He also liked to hold on to women�s legs.�

THE LINE OF DUTY

Eight-year-old Mok was once a stray on the streets of Chiang Khong district. Police selected him for training in the Tong Daeng Project, which was started by His Majesty the King. The goal of the programme is to turn strays into police dogs.

During his time at the training centre, Mok met 6-year-old Lai, a stray from Bangkok. After six months of training, the pair were sent to work at Chiang Rai Airport.

With their keen sense of smell, Mok and Lai helped police detect drugs hidden in bags. Their skills earned them Khun Tong Daeng awards, which are given to dogs who perform their duties well.

�Both of them were just as good as foreign dogs trained for use in drug missions,� Jakapop said.

In spite of their training and talent for the job, the two just could not leave their old habits behind.

�They were stray dogs, so their manners were worse than those of foreign breeds,� Jakapop said.

Chiang Rai police had no choice but to remove the pair from duty after an increasing number of complaints about their bad behaviour.

BACK TO BASICS

After the dogs were fired, Jakapop decided to send them to his brother, senior police officer Santirat Kamhom, who owns a farm in Chiang Khong district. They now work as guard dogs.

�At first, I wanted them to check for drugs among the hilltribe people, but I feared that the dogs would get hurt,� Santirat said.

Mok and Lai like their new work, herding chickens and pigs. When they are hot, they take a swim and cool off in a nearby creek.

�It seems that they have won back the freedom that they enjoyed as street dogs,� Santirat said.

Exercises

Read the story. Then, answer the following reading comprehension questions.

1. Where was Lai from?

2. What did Mok and Lai help police do?

3. Where were the dogs sent after they were fired?

4. Why did Santirat not use the dogs to check hilltribe people for drugs?

	prestigious (adj): respected and admired as very important or of very high quality shake (v): in this usage, to get rid of something bar (v): to forbid or prevent somebody from doing something stray (n): a domesticated animal that has no owner keen (adj): highly developed detect (v): to discover or notice something something that is not easy to see, hear, etc. breed (n): a particular type of animal that has been developed by people in a controlled way fire (v): to force somebody to leave their job herd (v): to make animals move together as a group creek (n): a small river or stream IDIOM you can�t teach an old dog new tricks: you cannot successfully make old people change their ideas, methods of work, etc.