Puppies Face High Bar to be TSA Canine
TSA Puppy Program
Our explosive-detection teams are the most mobile form of explosive detection and can be utilized in all areas of the airport environment. An explosive detection canine team is used to search aircraft, vehicles, terminals, warehouses, and luggage in the airport environment.
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From birth, careful attention is paid to nutrition and medication, growth is regularly measured, living conditions must be clean, and a support network is developed. Sound like Child Rearing 101?
No, those are just some of the standards for TSA’s Puppy Program, whose graduates join the agency’s National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program and protect aviation and mass transit.
Scott Thomas and a team of five manage the program. Started in 2002, it is based at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Besides pure-bred labradors, labradors are also bred with Hungarian vizslas, resulting in a hybrid “vizslador” that has proven its worth at TSA. “The combination gives us the nose of a vizsla and the enthusiasm for play of a labrador retriever,” said Thomas.
Breeding at least 100 puppies annually is the goal. Each is named after a 9/11 victim. “We spend every day trying to manage the economics, science and practicalities of breeding and developing dogs,” Thomas said.
Puppies’ development is regularly assessed and training can begin at 12 months. Puppies are placed with families for human socialization as early as nine weeks.
Training is rigorous. Some may not pass a battery of tests, others may exhibit behavioral problems.
“Our main concern is that every one of these dogs, if they don’t work out for us, be placed in a good home,” said Thomas. Graduating dogs that TSA doesn’t select may become family pets or find careers with other law enforcement agencies or the U.S. military.
» Click here to read more about our Puppy Program and how you can get involved
» Click here to read about National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program
