The economic outlook for many of us may be dodgy as the credit squeeze bites, but prospects for one group of Oxfordshire workers appears to be looking up. True, they receive no money for their efforts: but then these workers are canine, not human.

Dutch multi-national security company ICTS, which employs 15,000 worldwide and achieves a £300m turnover, has now invested £1m on establishing its Combined Operations, Research and Dog Training Centre at Milton Park - new home for 20 drug and explosive-sniffing canines.

In Britain and Ireland the company employs 3,000 and has a turnover of £60m, with 30 staff, many of them dog handlers trained to the standards of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

UK and Ireland finance director Ben Lewis said: "As one of the world leaders, possibly the world leader, in this field, we did a lot of research into using dogs and decided there was a growing demand."

He said that many organisations such as schools and colleges were interested in using a private company, rather than police, when they suspect a drugs problem.

The dog division in Britain, known as ICTS - GIS, now receives 65 per cent of its revenue from Aviation, such as from helping search out explosives and drugs at airports, on aircraft, and at freight warehouses.

But dogs like Kizzie, the cocker spaniel demonstrating her drug-sniffing skills at the opening of the new kennels by surveying luggage stored in the hold of a coach, lead a varied working life.

She might find herself helping Thames Valley Police patrol the streets of Oxford at night, or she could go into a school or college to use her prowess at catching possessors of illegal substances.

Or she could be deployed on the contract to search National Express coaches, or at the nation's most famous sporting grounds, such as Lords cricket ground.

Thames Valley Police assistant chief constable - local policing, Nick Gargan, said: "I am impressed by the scope of the ICTS-GIS operation and see potential to expand our co-operation.

"It is useful for us to be able to co-operate with the private sector to bring in this extra service in the evenings and at weekends."

He added that the police were continually looking for closer ways in which to co-operate with the business community, which he saw as a "tremendous force for good" for local policing.

ICTS-GIS group business development officer John Franklin-Webb said that as the fight against terrorism intensified, demand for their services increased too.

He said: "We believe that in the next few years there will be a greater liaison and co-operation between government agencies and the private security sector as vigilance increases leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games."

The company has cargo screening suites - and kennels - at Heathrow and Manchester airports where it uses a system called RASCargO, for which the dogs are trained at Milton Park.

The RASCargO programme, devised by the Department for Transport working closely with defence scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down, enables law enforcers to screen oversized and dense cargo that cannot easily be checked by traditional methods.

Air samples are collected from freight using special filters which are then presented to the highly-trained dogs in safe and controlled surroundings.

But searching for drugs, explosives and firearms on private premises, such as schools and colleges, and in the streets of cities such as Oxford is also a growing business, with reported arrests for cannabis up 22 per cent to September 2007, and gun-related crime up by four per cent.

Mr Franklin-Webb believes there is a powerful connection between drugs and firearms. More controversially, he also believes that cannabis is too often the gateway' drug leading to stronger substances, such as heroin.

To back this second point, he called on anti-drugs campaigner Elizabeth Burton-Phillips at the opening of the Milton Park Centre to speak about some of the tragic consequences of drug misuse.

Ms Burton-Phillips is the author of the book Mum Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid which describes how her twin sons became heroin addicts after first using cannabis prolifically. One twin died; the other recovered from his addiction.

Also at the opening of the new centre were representatives from the Prison Service, BT, Metropolitan Police, and heads of private and state schools.

All in all we learned that the business of drug and explosives detection is going ever more high- tech but that dogs were becoming more, not less, central to such operations. Their jobs look secure for the future.

But talking of dogs and humans, it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

The low-tech author of this piece mistook the gift kindly included in the press pack for a dog whistle.

In fact it was a memory stick to enable me to transfer my musings from one laptop to another!