I have been on hand for a lot of bomb scares at Ft Lewis, usually while I was working at the commissary or shoping at the main PX. When they bring the dogs around the perimeter of the building, the handlers just know automatically that the dogs will stop and get all excited as they pass the open-air part of the garden section, even if they are up-wind of it. Lawn-care products are full of what the dogs are sniffing for. The dogs go up to the wall and bark a lot, but they do not seem to be trying to dig.
Exactly.....the hardest part of training a k9 team is training the human!
Received a little dog humor in my e-mail this morning and it fits right here so....
A man had just settled into his seat next to the window on the plane when
another man sits down in the aisle seat and puts his black Labrador
in the middle seat next to the man.
The first man looks very quizzically at the dog and asks why the dog is
allowed on the plane ?
The second man explains that he is a Drug Enforcement Agency officer
and the dog is a 'Sniffer dog'. 'His name is Smithy and he's the best there is.
I'll show you once we get airborne, when I put him to work.'
The plane takes off, and once it has leveled out, the agent says:
Watch this.' He tells Smithy to 'search'.
Smithy jumps down, walks along the aisle, and finally sits very
purposefully next to a woman for several seconds.
Smithy then returns to his seat and puts one paw on the agent's arm.
The agent says, 'Good boy', and he turns to the man and says:
'That woman is in possession of marijuana, so I'm making a note of her
seat number and the authorities will apprehend her when we land.'
'Say, that's pretty neat,' replies the first man.
Once again, the agent sends Smithy to search the aisles.
The Lab sniffs about, sits down beside a man for a few seconds,
returns to his seat and this time, he places TWO paws on the agent's
arm.
The agent says, 'That man is carrying cocaine, so again, I'm making
note of his seat number for the police.'
'I like it!' says his seat mate.
The agent then tells Smithy to 'search' again.
Smithy walks up and down the aisles for a little while, sits down for a
moment and then comes racing back to the agent, jumps into the
middle seat and proceeds to ◊◊◊◊ all over the place.
The first man is really amazed out by this behavior and can't figure
out how or why a well-trained dog would behave like this, so he asks
the agent 'What's going on?'
The agent nervously replies, 'He just found a bomb !'
