BTW I just checked - its not FDA, its Dept. of Agriculture. My bad. Next time you're arriving from an international flight, you'll see these beagles wondering around about 10 or 20 feet away from their handlers. They'll walk through the carry on baggage and sit by any piece of carry-on luggage that contains any prohibited food. That's how they notify their handler about something suspicious. Their accuracy and reliability are amazing. Dr. Prestrude did some experiments with explosives detection and found that these dogs were even more accurate.
The one time I watched them working I saw one little kid say "Puppy" and lurch towards the dog. The beagle saw this and just went over and sat behind its handler. They really have the idea that if they're working they don't want to play. Great thing about these dogs is that their noses are very sensitive and reliable. Also people are much more accepting of beagles since the animals are much less threatening than German Shepards or Rotweillers. On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Scott Stewart <[email protected]> wrote: > > And I'd spend way to much time trying to play with the dog.... > > On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 12:03 PM, Ray Champagne <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Except those people who are terrified of dogs, or look at dogs in a >> different way than you and I due to culture, religion, or both. >> >> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Larry C. Lyons >> <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> >>> The irritating thing is that there is a much cheaper and more >>> effective alternative, use trained dogs. From what I remember, (had a >>> prof in grad school who studied this and trained dogs for the FDA and >>> other government agencies), a beagle's nose is sensitive enough to >>> detect trace amounts of PETN and other explosives from a few feet >>> away. And besides beagles are much less threatening. >>> >>> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 10:58 AM, G Money <[email protected]> wrote: >>> > >>> > On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected] >>> >wrote: >>> > >>> >> >>> >> Last September I flew out to Portland OR. At the Dulles airport I was >>> >> the recipient of a full body pat down because of my insulin pump, and >>> >> a false positive reading on an explosives detector (I guess it didn't >>> >> help that I had cleaned out the ferrets' litter box just before >>> >> leaving). The pat down was extremely intrusive to the point where from >>> >> now on given the choice I would go for a scanner every time. >>> >> >>> > >>> > You shouldn't even have to make that choice. >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> >>> >> >> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:331710 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
