Does that make them failures? No, it just means they are too successful at being friendly to work with the public, or they’d rather take a nap than sniff out contraband. And if that’s exactly the kind of doggo you’re looking for, you can help them find a new home more suited to their lovable personality with the government’s adoption program for dogs who flunked out of school. The TSA Canine Adoption Program, which we learned about at INSIDER, pairs up puppers, large breeds typically between two and four years old, who did not meet the required criteria for government work. (Though they occasionally also have retired dogs available too.) The process to adopt is a lengthy one, and they warn the “dogs are highly active and in most cases, untrained and not house broken,” but they also “with proper training and care, they can be a great addition to families.”
#DidYouKnow: German Shorthaired Pointers, Labrador Retrievers and German Shepherds are the breeds you're most likely to see working as TSA explosive detection #dogs. pic.twitter.com/NiAwAcN6AR
— TSA (@TSA) July 9, 2018
Even though new owners must visit and pick up their new best friends at the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas themselves, the program is such a hit they are currently not accepting applications, which means we need more dogs to be dropped from their service training. Especially because the normal reasons they don’t graduate are everything we want in a doggo–some prefer sleeping to working, others are a little too nervous to look for bad guys, and others are just too nice for serious work.
They don’t sound like a failure to us, they sound like dogs that are the best at being lovable.
Would you want to adopt one of these dogs? Tell us why in the comments below.
