Canines and Canine Training

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to award a Firm-Fixed Price purchase order to Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

In accordance with FAR Part 6.302-1, the Contractor is the only known responsible source who can provide the services for the requirement listed below.

The purpose of this notice is to inform the public that the NIH, Office of Research Services, Division of Police (DP) intends to issue a purchase order to Tarheel Canine Training, Inc. to acquire explosive detection dogs and handler training. Tarheel Canine Training, Inc. is the only known vendor who has perfected a training method called hunt-drive training, which is a versatile approach suitable for various dog breeds. This method harnesses a dog's natural predatory instincts to enhance their motivation for searching, tracking, and locating targets by utilizing their keen sense of smell. Hunt-drive training significantly improves performance in scent detection tasks, such as explosives detection. The Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.’s hunting drive process is designed to make the dog less aware of the handler and more focused on finding the target odor independently. This creates a firm fixed-action pattern, intensifying the odor-searching behavior and making it difficult to distract or derail from the goal of finding the target odor. The NIH DP Canine (K9) unit has followed changes in professional trends, by re-training our K9 Teams in explosive odor detection specific to Law Enforcement. Recently, unique K9 training methods designed and taught by Tarheel Canine Training Inc. were adopted. The NIH DP has certified all K9 instructors in the Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.’s method. The DP intends to re-train veteran K9 teams in the Tarheel Canine Training, Inc. method. All new teams will use this method as their training foundation. The Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.’s method which focuses on a dog's natural abilities and instincts, has proven to be vastly superior to traditional explosive detection approaches. Tarheel Canine Training, Inc., in the presence of the DP K9 supervisor, shall evaluate an untrained dog for trainable characteristics, have them tested for overall health and fitness for police work, and provide a limited guarantee. The K9 training will take place over three months. After the K9 training period, the K9 and a new handler shall be paired and trained for three weeks. Once the K9 arrives at the DP, it shall be fully ready for service.

This notice is not a request for competitive quotes. However, any party that believes it can fulfill the requirement as stated herein may submit a written capability statement with information that clearly supports and demonstrates the ability to satisfy the requirement. A determination by the Government to compete this proposed award based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

It is anticipated that an award will be issued approximately five (5) days after the date of this notice unless the Government determines that another company has the capability to satisfy this requirement.

Responses to this notice must include the Notice ID #SS-NIH-7133953 on the subject line of the email. Please email responses to zetherine.gore@nih.gov no later than 12 p.m. EST on Friday, January 24 , 2025.