Give That Dog a Job!

An airport security dog on duty. (photo Adobe Stock)

After being grounded and isolated for the past 18 months, I’m now fully vaccinated and have begun flying a bit again lately. I love traveling and especially love airports. The hustle and bustle. The people watching. The endless potential for adventure at the other end of a flight. 

As I’m also a professional dog trainer, it won’t surprise you that I also love to see a sniffer dog working at the airport. It’s always fun to see the variety of breeds doing detection work in public places. Often it’s a Beagle or some sort of bird dog, but I’ve seen Brittany Spaniels, Labrador Retrievers, German Shorthair Pointers, Belgian Malinois, and even a Weimaraner on the job.

On my most recent trip, I watched a very sweet, earnest Lab eagerly sitting at attention, ready for duty as her handler checked in for her flight. Her handler had accidentally dropped her wallet on the floor while trying to produce her ID at check-in and, on cue, the dog enthusiastically, but gently picked up the dropped item and returned it to her hand. I can’t get enough of that kind of stuff.

Once, years ago, on landing in Australia from SFO, I was happily watching the sniffer Beagle use his nose to vacuum all the incoming luggage as it spun on the baggage carousel. There I was, admiring his work, when he suddenly veered off with a sharp head snap and went straight for my carry on bag! He sniffed all around its edges, then came to a complete stop, and sat looking at his handler with a meaningful gaze. While I was certainly impressed, I couldn’t imagine why the dog had alerted on me.

The border control agent/handler began asking me questions. Did I have any plants in my suitcase? No. Food? No. Loose tea? No. After several lines of inquiry the agent asked me to open my case. I complied, of course, but I was also wracking my brain, wondering what had set the dog off. I didn’t want to get in trouble, but the dog trainer part of me actually wanted the dog to be correct and earn reinforcement.

After fully inspecting my bag and finding nothing, the agent relented, released the dog back to work, and moved on. I couldn’t let it go that easily, though. I pawed through my bag, hoping to find a long forgotten cheese and cracker snack pack or some morsel or crumb from a former airport pastry. No such luck. 

Then, just as I was about to give up and start putting the items away that I’d removed, I picked up my medicine case and realized I had a bottle of herbal tincture that had been prescribed to me by my Chinese medical practitioner. That had to be what that diligent Beagle had picked up on. I tried to get the agent’s attention so the dog’s decision could be justified, but they had moved on. 

I’ve felt bad about that day ever since. As is nearly always the case, the dog was right and the human was the problem.

It thrills me to see working dogs in action in real life, using their innate talents, doing the work they’ve been bred to do. Indeed, most dog breeds were originally bred to do something and so very few of them get the opportunity to actually work these days. There is nothing more fascinating or pleasurable than watching a dog do their thing, instead of always having to suppress their desires to fit into our human lives and expectations.

In fact, much of a dog trainer’s job is educating owners about the original purpose of their chosen breed and how that amazing heritage might be affecting their dog’s behavior in the home or at the park. I am always looking for ways to help people to cherish and honor their dog’s heritable inclinations rather than feel irritated or inconvenienced by them.

A big part of my job is to find creative ways for dogs to “legally” express themselves in a way that people can appreciate or at the very least tolerate. I’ve designed authorized digging pits in gardens for terrier types, helped folks find the strongest tree in their yard to dangle ropes for bully breeds to tug, and I absolutely love teaching scent games to hound enthusiasts. I’ve introduced people and their pets to weight pull competitions, agility fun matches, lure coursing, barn hunt, dock diving, and sheep herding, just to name a few fun activities that are designed to showcase a dog’s natural talents.

Once people see what their dogs are capable of when offered a proper channel for their behavior, they often develop a new respect for their dogs bordering on awe. Tendencies that were once annoying are now seen as mad skills, part of a fun shared activity that deepens the human/dog bond and connects us with what many of our ancestors may have experienced as they worked beside their canine partners daily.

So consider giving your dog a job that engages and exercises their natural canine talents. Then get ready to bow down in reverence as they show you how it’s done.