TSA Moves to Floppy Eared Dogs to Have Friendlier Presence

Amy Tang
By Amy Tang
December 24, 2018Travel
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TSA Moves to Floppy Eared Dogs to Have Friendlier Presence
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Puppy Program Manager Scott Thomas holds puppies Hoey (L) and Hatton as he talks to members of the press during a media day at the Pentagon Jun. 28, 2011 in Arlington, Va.

There’s nothing uncommon about a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent accompanied by a dog walking through the crowds in an airport. However, observant frequent travelers may have noticed a change.

The TSA is trying to have a friendlier presence by swapping out pointed-eared dogs to floppy-eared ones, according to the TSA Administrator David Pekoske.

“We’ve made a conscious effort in TSA … to use floppy ear dogs,” said Pekoske to the Washington Examiner. “We find the passenger acceptance of floppy ear dogs is just better. It presents just a little bit less of a concern,” Pekoske said.

In addition to putting general passengers more at ease, a floppy ear dog also “doesn’t scare children,” according to Pekoske.

However, appearance can be deceiving. TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein warns that travelers should not approach the dogs while they are working, droopy-eared or not.

TSA K9 handler Steve Sanzillo pets his explosive detection dog Teddy during a demonstration at LaGuardia Airport
TSA K9 handler Steve Sanzillo pets his explosive detection dog Teddy during a demonstration at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, on Jan. 20, 2016. (Bryan Thomas/Getty Images)

Farbstein also said that the decision to take into account the appearance of the dogs when purchasing them is only an informal internal decision. There is no official document regarding the change.

The TSA employs 1,200 dogs in the United States, which is the second-largest number of any federal agency. Of these dogs, 80 percent have droopy ears, while the rest have cone-shaped ones.

Dogs employed by the TSA retire all the time, and many dogs do not meet the criteria for government work. The TSA has an adoption program for these dogs. According to the TSA’s Canine Adoption Program webpage, the dogs are free to adopt, but waiting time for complete applications varies between three months to a year. Moreover, law enforcement and service agencies have priority.

The TSA is not swapping out all pointy-eared dogs, 20 percent of those purchased in the past year didn’t have droopy ears. Ultimately, it’s not the look that will decide if a dog will be selected to work in the airports, a pointy-eared dog may still be selected because of its other qualities.

TSA Canine Training

Every year, the TSA trains about 350 canine teams to protect passengers from terrorism. In addition to TSA-led canine teams, state and local law enforcement-led canine teams are also trained by the TSA.

Situated in San Antonio, the TSA’s National Canine Training Center provides canine handler courses for federal, state, and local law enforcement officers from various parts of the country. In general, the courses last 10 weeks, however, courses that focus on passenger screening require an additional two weeks, as explained in this video below by the TSA.

During the training, officers are paired with a canine teammate, learning how to work together to locate and identify dangerous materials that may threat the safety of the public. The training is designed to replicate real-world situations, so that the dogs will be familiar with working in different environments, such as airport terminals, the inside of an aircraft, and cargo areas.

According to the TSA video, the course has four main objectives, which are: “the canine’s ability to recognize explosives odors, the handler’s ability to interpret the dog’s change of behavior, the handler’s ability to conduct logical and systematic searches, and the team’s ability to locate the explosives’ odor source.”

The TSA began to train dogs for explosive detection in 2001, and the TSA has been using the new canine training facility at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland since 2016, according to a press release. Inside the 25,000 square-foot facility there are seven classrooms, an auditorium, an administrative space, and a courtyard.

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