"By living with adoptive families, young puppies can better learn to interact with humans, get accustomed to people's social environment and develop obedience, " said the official of the Directorate General of Customs (DGC) under the Ministry of Finance.

"This early stage of socialization training will improve the quality of the animals and make it easier to train them specifically for drug detection, " said the official at the customs office's sniffer dog training center in central Taiwan's Taichung County.

Housing, behavior instruction and basic work training for drug-sniffing dogs are different than for pet dogs, therefore prospective adoptive families must meet certain requirements and strictly follow the regulations formulated by customs authorities, the official said.

First of all, prospective families must have a fenced yard so that the puppies can move around freely but would not be able to run off, the official specified, adding that the family members must all like puppies, take pleasure in interacting with them and be able to walk them daily as part of the socialization program.

Regarding their food and housing, the puppies should sleep strictly outdoors and should not be fed anything other than the food provided by the DGC's sniffer dog training center.

During the adoptive period, the DGC will pay for food, medical care, vaccination and any other expenses, the official said, adding that adoptive families can take the puppies back to the center if they have to travel out of town or go abroad for more than one day.

Meanwhile, the official said individual volunteers are also welcome to help walk the puppies so that the animals could adapt more easily to the natural and social environment.

"Individual volunteers would be expected to walk the puppies on the streets or in parks, shopping malls, bus or railway stations and other crowded public places twice a week," the official explained.

Prospective volunteers for adoption or socialization training are welcome to register on the customs office's Web site at http://web.customs.gov.tw, the official said, adding that his center will contact applicants for further details.

(By Lin Ye-fong and Sofia Wu)