Transcription
At the National Detector Dog Training in Orlando, Florida, every day has a noisy start. This is especially true for K9 instructor Brent Held. A half dozen beagles are waiting for their morning run. The first lucky dog is a beagle called Stockton. Stockton is learning to become a detector dog. Before Held and Stockton start work, it is time for play. "Come on, come on," Held says. The personalities are all very different; that's what makes this job so cool. I mean, every time, every time I train these guys, I learn something different every time.
Detector dogs work in international airports and look for illegal imports like citrus fruits, mangos, and apples that may carry diseases. They also sniff for meat products that may carry diseases. At 21 international airports around the United States, every day dogs help to find this food. But the dogs have to do this without bothering passengers who are bringing home safe and legal gifts to their friends and family. That's where the National Detector Dog Training Center comes in.
"What we got here is a target box," Held explains. "It's called 'mixed.' The reason I call it 'mixed' is because exactly what it is—it's mixed odor. What I have here: we have some beef jerky, I have a beef odor, I have an apple odor, I have my citrus odor, and I have my mango odor. So, shall we try the bags now? Let's go try the handbags. Come on. Thank you, good boy. That's a good boy."
"And what we want the dogs to do is work the seam of the suitcase, because the odor comes out from the seam," Held continues. "What we teach the canine officers and the dogs: when we breathe the bag, odors coming out of the bag. What you get—we got you—got something, Stockton? You got something? Oh boy, yeah, you found that, huh? You found the meat. That's a good boy."
Things don't always go so smoothly for Stockton, though. On the next test, he lies down when he is supposed to sit. On another, he gets too far ahead of Held. "For me, boy! Hey, whoa, wait for me! Let's go. Here, you can't work with me, I'm your partner, remember. Even though it's serious work, it always has to be fun for the animal." "Where you got there? We've got some there. Oh yeah, sit."
So what does it take to be a detector dog? Obviously, number one, have to be great with people and children, because when we work them in the airports, that's what we're working with—with the public coming from foreign countries. And they've got to have a real good food drive, because they work for food. Any beagle owner knows they love food. Even if you have to eat a big dinner, they're still ready to eat some more.
However, even after all that training, not all of the dogs are good enough to become detector dogs. For some reason, if they don't work out, we place them in homes. They stay with us until we can find a home that suits them. And we have applicants on our adoption list all the time, and we screen them to make sure that they're also a good fit for the dog that we have.
"Sake everybody, but Stockton is learning quickly," Held says. "We got some—Stockton's chances of becoming a detector dog look very good. Two meters, really weak. He just, just rolls along, kind of like a tortoise. Nothing kind of phases him. So he loves, he loves working; it's a game to him, which is really important. Good job." But when these two partners are working together, it's easy to see that it's not only Stockton who loves his work.