Dogs Sniff for Explosives - II


August 21, 2009

When a dog trains to sniff for bombs and bomb-making material, he or she undergoes intense training. At the FBI, Kurt is a black Labrador Retriever and is an Explosives Canine Detection dog. Officer Joel Altman has handled Kurt for about three years working outside FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.


Audio Transcript

Mr. Schiff: When a dog trains to sniff for bombs and bomb-making material, he or she undergoes intense training. At the FBI, Kurt is a black Labrador Retriever and is an Explosives Canine Detection dog. Officer Joel Altman has handled Kurt for about three years working outside FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Officer Altman: “ We look for explosives on vehicles that will be coming into the building as well as the deliveries that are coming in that are warehoused before they even get to the building. So we’re looking for any type of explosive odor, whether it be something that was placed there to detonate or anything that might have been fired like a gun or something that might be hidden.”

Mr. Schiff: If he’s going around a truck, a delivery truck, what are we seeing?

Officer Altman: “We’ll start on one end, one particular end; work our way around; go underneath the vehicle; the sides of the vehicles; the door seams; the back bumper areas; the engine compartment. And if it’s a big truck or a large truck, we’ll open the back gate.

Audio Download