Guiding Eyes for the Blind conducts airport orientation at BWI

Future information dogs had a chance to discover the Baltimore/Washington International-Thurgood Marshall Airport terminal together with follow going by way of a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint on Monday in order that they might be extra conversant in the expertise of traversing by way of an airport once they do must catch a flight.

TSA officers screened 20 puppies and their trainers from the Baltimore Puppy Raising Region of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, as they got here by way of the checkpoint in an effort to acclimate the longer term information dogs with an vital piece of the airport expertise—the safety checkpoint. The dogs additionally had the chance to discover different areas of the airport courtesy of the airport, which supplied the dogs the possibility to smell round a check-in counter, gate space, pet reduction space, and the checked baggage pick-up carousels.

The airport familiarization session is useful in guaranteeing that the pups will know what to anticipate once they change into information dogs and undergo airports, together with TSA checkpoints. TSA usually works with vacationers who use service dogs once they journey and affords orientation periods such because the one deliberate at BWI.

The orientation session additionally served as a very good overview and reinforcement of TSA procedures for screening service animals for the TSA officers who had been working on the checkpoint throughout the familiarization train.

“The orientation session was a hit with the dog trainers, the TSA officers, and of course with the dogs. There was plenty of tail wagging,” mentioned Grant Goodlett, TSA’s Deputy Federal Security Director for Maryland. “The collaborative effort benefitted the guide dogs, the airport and TSA and will go a long way to ensuring that the dogs and their eventual owners will have a smooth checkpoint experience in the future.”