TSA Relies on Man's Best Friend for Detecting Explosives
News & Happenings
September 24, 2007
Rex the eager 6-and-a-half-year-old German Shepherd heard "seek" and gladly yanked his leash-holding Aviation Police handler, Gordon Hurd, forward over the smooth brick floor and through the city airport.
His tail was up and he stuck his nose where it belonged: everywhere.
It pushed into plants, chairs, luggage - sniff, sniff, sniffed away until Rex stopped and sat not moving, just as he's been trained to do.
In a planter on the ticketing level of the terminal, Rex found a "bomb."
The bomb in this case was a training aid put there to help the dog detect potential explosives.
Bombs are something Rex, and his four-legged colleague, Robbie, a Belgian Malinois, search for daily at the Albuquerque International Sunport.
And what they come across is not always part of a drill.
Nine days after Iraq was invaded, a person in the Sunport terminal was seen putting a suspicious item in the garbage, said Lynne Avila, Robbie's handler with Aviation Police.
"So we went down and we walked around and he checked all the trash cans, and he went up on the one trash can and came down into a sit," she said. "And that's not something you want to believe.
"So I rewarded him, and I said, 'Make the call.' ''
The airport was shut down. The police bomb squad arrived. And the device turned out to be a camp stove.
A stove component was familiar to Robbie's keen sense of smell, and the discovery was hailed as "a good hit."
The dog and about six feet of leash was all that separated Avila from what, for all she knew then, was an explosive.
"The reality is we're looking for bombs," she said. "We're in an airport to look for bombs."
Growing Numbers
Avila, Hurd and the dogs they handle are part of the Transportation Security Administration's National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program, an initiative rooted in a Nixon-era airline bomb threat and one that's expanded since 9/11.
"We started out in roughly 15 cities back in 1972 with around 40 dogs and now we're up to almost 500 dogs," said Kim Vick, TSA canine field coordinator. "We have approximately 500 teams out covering roughly 85 airport and 15 mass transit systems, and we're growing."
The program is a joint effort between the TSA and local law enforcement agencies designated to protect transportation areas, in Albuquerque's case the city's Aviation Department police.
The TSA will not say how many teams are at any one site, but teams have been at the Albuquerque airport since 2002.
Day to day, they can be found inspecting all parts of the Sunport, inside and out, from terminal common area, the security checkpoint and gates to the baggage locations, cargo areas and parking lots. Aircraft are also checked.
The main job of the teams is to remain visible, and they train every day, Avila said.
"Whatever they can see, they'll sniff," she said. "That's what they do."
'A marriage'
At Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where the TSA's canine team training takes place, the dogs and handlers are paired based on their personalities - personalities that complement one another.
"They actually call it a marriage," Vick said.
Dogs and handlers even live together in their off hours.
A big difference in the TSA canine program from similar programs is that it is "reward-play" oriented.
When a "bomb" is located, a ball, Kong or other toy is tossed to the floor to the delight of the dog. A little patting and verbal praise, your standard "Good boy!" is given to the dog as a "secondary reward" for a job well done.
"There are a lot of other agencies that have food rewards - if the dog finds something, they'll give them a handful of dog food," Vick said. "Our philosophy is that dogs have the greatest drive when all they're trying to do is have fun and please their handler."
The dogs should think their job is a game, or "When I find it, he's going to play with me."
"Rex is high drive, and he loves doing his job," Hurd said. "When you see his tail go down and his ears go down, he's just not having fun. So I've got to pull him out of the problem."
Sometimes, that requires getting on your hands and knees to give the dog an enthusiastic pep talk, if you will.
"(Inspecting) cargo is a hard thing, and we do a lot of it," Avila said. "So we have to come out here frequently just to keep them motivated.
"They need motivation to pull out ahead of us and go out there and check the box and check the cart and everything."
One recent Thursday, Robbie didn't need much inspiration.
He searched a cargo area at the Sunport - he's sharp enough to know to search places where training aids have been hidden before - sniffed boxes inside and outside the buildings and equipment hauling the shipments.
This all went on until Robbie pointed his muzzle at a box on the third shelf, stopped and sat.
He found the "bomb."
And for a job well done, Avila presented Robbie his reward. A chew toy that in minutes was covered with the slobber of a very satisfied dog.
