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Two new bomb-sniffing dogs join TIA's security
By JEAN HELLER, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- It was Renza's first time on an escalator. It was Dunja's first trip on a shuttle. Neither had ever encountered a crowd of human beings until Thursday. Tampa International Airport's two newest bomb-sniffing dogs have a lot to learn before they will be ready to work in earnest. For starters, they must learn what it's like not to spend to their lives at a kennel mainly in the company of other dogs. Renza, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, and Dunja, a 2-year-old German shepherd, have spent the past 10 weeks in training in Texas with their handlers, Cpl. Richard Osborn and Detective Jack Lively of the TIA police force. They will spend the next four weeks getting acclimated to their surroundings and familiar with their jobs before going to work full time. Then they will get two weeks of final checks by the federal Transportation Security Administration before they assume full duties. "They're working, but they're not on line," said Osborn. "We're not asking them to do the jobs of fully trained dogs, but if they alert to something, we'll check it out." While both dogs are friendly, airport visitors will be discouraged from petting them, at least in the near term. By contrast, petting was welcome with their predecessors, a Belgian Malinois named Keno and a greyhound-black Lab mix named Kramer. "The TSA would like not to get into people touching the dogs," Osborn said. "They're working dogs and shouldn't be distracted. But you're never going to completely stop people from petting the dogs. If people are dog lovers, the dogs will sense that and want to be touched." Renza and Dunja were bred in Europe and purchased by the Transportation Security Administration to help meet a fast-growing demand for bomb sniffers at the nation's airports since Sept. 11. Each dog costs between $3,000 and $3,500 before their training. After they are fully trained during a 10-week course at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, they are valued as high as $10,000 each. The dogs have a working life of about 10 years. The Transportation Security Administration pays for the dogs and their maintenance, which is why TIA decided to retire its own dogs in favor of the federal program, even though Keno and Kramer had been trained to detect more explosives than the new dogs can recognize. TIA's third bomb sniffer, a chocolate Lab named Apollo, will retire in October, and his handler, Detective Frank Major, will go through the same process at Lackland with a Transportation Security Administration dog. Apollo and Major have been doing full duty at TIA while Osborn and Lively went through training. Meanwhile, Keno and Kramer seem to be doing well in their new-found leisure. They went home as pets with Osborn and Lively shortly after the first of the year. "Enjoying retirement," Lively said.
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