Photo Credit: TSA/Instagram
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Floppy-eared doggosare making theirway to airport security sites next year.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now exchanging pointy-ear dogs for floppy-ear ones, so the public will feel more comfortable when interacting with TSA canines, the Washington Examiner reported.
“We’ve made a conscious effort in TSA … to use floppy ear dogs.“We find the passenger acceptance of floppy ear dogs is just better. It presents just a little bit less of a concern,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said at a recent tour of operations at the WashingtonDulles International Airport in Virginia. “Doesn’t scare children.”
As a federal agency, TSA employs the second-highest number of dogs. Out of the 1,200 dogs TSA uses, 80 percent of them have droopy ears compared to 20 percent with cone-shaped ears. Even though dogs are retiring from TSA annually, TSA would like to grow its floppy-ear dog force, which typically consists of dogs that are classified as hunting or sporting breeds.
TSA uses five different types of sporting breeds including Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, German short-haired Pointers, Wirehaired Pointers, and Vizslas. The TSA’s pointy-eared dogsinclude the Belgian Malinois and the German Shepherd.
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Wake up Maggie! We think we’ve got something to say to you! It’s almost September, and you really shouldn’t just sit there and drool. Just kidding! Maggie is a hard working doggo, and she deserves some rest every now and then. She’s an explosives detection canine and she works with her handler at the Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD). … TSA trains and deploys about 350 TSA-led and local law enforcement-led canine teams per year to operate in the aviation, multimodal, mass transit, and cargo environments. Once trained, these very effective, mobile teams can quickly locate and identify dangerous materials that may present a threat to transportation systems. The canines are often seen working in some of the nation’s largest airports. TSA has been training canines in explosives detection since 2001. … #TSACanines #WorkingDogs #DogsOfInstagram #TSA #IAD
A post shared by TSA (@tsa) on Aug 31, 2018 at 1:32pm PDT
One-third of these dogs screen passengers at airports, while the other two-thirds work at airports to sniff out baggage for explosives and can be used by local law enforcement to help in case of an emergency.
“If there’s a bomb scare somewhere else in that town, they’ll pull that dog. We train them at our expense,” Christopher Shelton, branch manager of the TSA canine training center in Texas, told the Washington Examiner. “We provide the dogs.”
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