Light-nosed
I met this man who trains dogs to sniff out explosives. They call them bomb dogs. He does this for the police department in Washington, D.C. Of course, a lot of people both home and abroad would like to plant explosives in Washington, D.C. our nation’s capitol. Even some people who work there in-and-out seem to want to blow the place up. It isn’t clear these dogs can save the day, but who knows?
The man I talked with told me they get the dogs from Germany, and a fully trained dog is worth over a hundred thousand dollars. One reason is that it takes the trainer a year of full time work to get a dog ready. An untrained dog will smell all the smells there are, and there are so many it must be hard to get a dog focused on the few things a bomb can smell like.
The trainer I talked with said they get very attached to their dogs, and the dogs to them. He said they even get bereavement leave if their dog dies or gets killed. He said the thing that makes a bomb dog’s day is to do his job well and have the trainer pet him and tell him he’s a good dog. But it has to be the trainer telling him that. Anyone else tells him “good dog” and he’ll say “well who the heck are you?” He has one master, and what the master says about his work is the only thing that matters. Bomb dogs are very clear about this.
It must be hard, working every day as a bomb dog. You’re trained you to go in where the bombs are so people don’t have to. People used to do this themselves, but now they have you to do it so they can stay safe.
So you have to work alone in there where a bomb may be. You have to make your own decisions. There’s no such thing as calling over a fellow dog and asking him to take a whiff please. Ask him what this smells like to him. Have a conference on it there like those umpires do when they throw down their little flags. They huddle together and try to decide why they did that. But these dogs have to make the decision alone and in a hurry.
And speaking of in a hurry, it would be easy to get heavy-nosed while in a hurry. The bombs are lying there just waiting for a heavy-nosed dog to set it off. A bomb dog can’t get heavy-nosed or he won’t be staying on the bomb squad long. Rush in there and hard nose right down on a bomb and BOOM! His trainer who spent a year just with him wouldn’t appreciate this. Instead of “good dog” he’d be hearing something else. Or hearing nothing at all. His memorial service would get scheduled.
When you’re in an explosive situation, the first thing you have to do is stay light-nosed.
Think about this.
