The Beagle Brigade

The Washington Post had a front-page article Thursday about the beagles who are employed to sniff incoming travelers and their luggage for food which should not be imported, in particular for pork products which might be infected with African swine fever. These dogs are not focused on sniffing out narcotics — that’s another specialty — but food, and beagles are trained for the job, because they are, as the article describes them “very food-oriented.” They sniff for food, and if they find contraband, they are rewarded with tidbits to eat (not the illegal imports they find).

I wonder whether my old friend Rex would have been good at this if he had been adopted by the Customs Service instead of an ordinary family. Not all beagles who begin training qualify, and he might have been too lazy or distractable. On the other hand, he certainly did plenty of sniffing, and given professional training, he might have done well. I am confident, at least, that no one would have been able to smuggle any rabbits past him.

Speaking of dogs, I saw a man at an outdoor table last weekend with two dogs, one of them a hound puppy which he was holding, and one a larger black dog sitting on the ground. The adorable eight week old puppy (a blue heeler, the man said) nuzzled my hand, and let me pet him. I was willing to make friends with the black dog, too, but her human warned me that she could be skittish.