A drug sniffing dog distracted by food?

[videogal1]

A suspicious smell emanating from a suitcase turned out to be food but it was strong enough for a pair of alert bomb-sniffing dogs to keep passengers from boarding the Disney Wonder cruise ship Thursday, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.




Never. So what's the real story?

 

[Regina]

Okay, 'fess up. Who packed the stinky cheese??

 

[UGAFan0829]

It's good to know that those dogs are on top of things. I would rather be safe than sorry. Granted, I'm sure it was an inconvenience to the person to whom the food belonged, but I wouldn't want anyone to think I was carrying a bomb!! Kudos to DCL and their furry friends!

 

[UGAFan0829]

A suspicious smell emanating from a suitcase turned out to be food but it was strong enough for a pair of alert bomb-sniffing dogs to keep passengers from boarding the Disney Wonder cruise ship Thursday, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.




Never. So what's the real story?

Oops, I just read the bottom part of your post...So are you saying that a bomb-sniffing dog wouldn't confuse food with a bomb? If so, then I agree that there may be more to the story!

 

[jgalecpa]

Okay, 'fess up. Who packed the stinky cheese??

Run, Run, Run, Just As Fast as you Can. Can't Stop Me I'm The Stinky Cheese Man!

 

[DrCavin]

Granted, I'm sure it was an inconvenience to the person to whom the food belonged, but I wouldn't want anyone to think I was carrying a bomb!!

I would say it is an inconvenience to all the others having to wait to board!! That terminal had to be a bit crazy!!!

Maybe they watch Emeril & kicked-it-up way to many notches..

 

[videogal1]

Oops, I just read the bottom part of your post...So are you saying that a bomb-sniffing dog wouldn't confuse food with a bomb? If so, then I agree that there may be more to the story!

No bomb-sniffing dog would alert on food. They are trained to recognize
the chemical signature of explosives PERIOD. I can see by the other posts on this thread, though, that people would rather believe that an important detection device (dog) would make a mistake...Come ON, people. If bomb-sniffers were allowed to alert on food carried by passengers, there would be so many delays the ship would never leave port....Just think of the baby food, favorite snack foods left over from long flights, and other edibles brought on board...Including dog food for other service dogs....

 

[myboysmom]

Some dogs are trained to alert on food. On our trip to Hawaii 8 years ago the islands all had dogs trained to alert on food. This is because of disease and pests that could be transported back to the mainland (and cause problems in the production of food). My mom had stuck an apple in her purse and was stopped by the beagle and had to surrender the apple.

Could it be that the dept. of agriculture had dogs there to deal with people bringing food off the ship earlier in the day?

 

[minkydog]

I bet there is more to that story. Those drug cogs are professionals. It's pretty hard to trick them into alerting for food--unless you're pacing ganja brownies.

 

[crisi]

Read this:

http://www.reason.com/sullum/012805.shtml

Dogs in test situations return false positives anywhere from 12.5 to 60% of the time. They alert on food all the time. That article has to do with narcotics sniffing, not bomb sniffing dogs, this one to do with the theories more generally:

http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/970929/detect.html

 

[slindamood]

Dogs do make mistakes.
A television program on training agricultural and explosive-sniffing dogs pointed out the need to constantly train the dog in recognizing the scent, giving positive reinforcement, and keeping the dog motivated and focused. The same points made in crisi's articles.

I once had the agricultural dog in JFK identify a carry-on bag of mine. I had fruit flavored hard candy, and the dog loved it. The handler was very nice, and it was obvious no fruit or other food was in the bag. But the dog kept coming back to me and would not do any more work in spite of the handler giving all the encouragement words to keep looking.

 

[two-foxes]

I work in a detention center and we have the K-9's do run throughs in our area to keep all the fellas on their toes. They DO get distracted by food, although the handler is usually quick to get them back on track. Our dogs are trained to hit on drugs, but a dog is a dog, and I would assume that bomb dogs would get distracted from food as well, especially if the odor was strong enough.....especially from the stinky cheese man!

 

[snelsonbrown]

good morning,
I just thought I would set the record straight on why the port was close down Thursday - Nope it wasn't smelly food coming from a suitcase - it did have an odor resembling a bomb, but the culprit was apparently the suitcase had either been close to, stored near to was fertilizer and the smell was distint enough that it was what one of the dogs picked up - the cloth suitcases will pick that odor up everytime.
Anyhow just thought I would let you all know.
Until next time
Blessings always
Shirley

 

[Kimmielee]

Run, Run, Run, Just As Fast as you Can. Can't Stop Me I'm The Stinky Cheese Man!

Jim, you can stop running now!!

 

[Laurabearz]

Ahhhhh it made the news! We were on that cruise and were stuck in the parking lot across from the termail in 90 plus heat with 3 kids (who just ate a ton of M&Ms) for 4 hours.

I have photos of the bomb squad that I will post later..... Maybe I will start a thread so all of us DISERs on the cruise can add 'where they were' LOL

Our REFUSE TO GIVE UP cruise turned into Where were you stuck cruise.

Ahhhh yes.... nothing like a bomb threat to get a 3 day cruise off to a rough start!

 

[Laurabearz]

I should add that there were a couple of stories floating around, but to me the most reliable one (from DCL staff inside) was there was a bag left unattended in the terminal (near the bathrooms to you right as you come up the escalators) This occured around 1015 ish and the they removed everyone who was in the termial at the time (a couple of DISERs were next in line when they shut down, I am sure they will pop in and share their experinces with that)

Anyway the dogs were called and it tested positive, so the bomb squad was called....

The word was it was fertilizer that set the dogs off... fertilizer being a main ingredient in bomb making.

I have photos of the bomb squad that I will post tomorrow, it''s been a looooooooooong 4 days and I am still rocking and rolling from being on the boat!!

EDITED to add.... ugh.. the grammar.. the speeling..... it has been a long day. Woke up at 530.. off the ship by 730 Epcot by 9am MCO at 1 to catch a 225 plane.... with 3 kids, 6, 4, 2. And the 2 yo who slept in the car between all the above AND on the plane is wide awake, happy as a clam....playing with his Thomas trains.

 

[tvguy]

Sounds like someone stores their suitcases in the garage next to the lawn fertilizer.

Discovery Times had a great series of shows on last night on drug sniffing dogs. The show was shot over several weeks, during numerous drug raids in Miami. Several times the dog just wouldn't sniff, the handler said you always have to remember they are just dogs. And if they make a really big drug find, they are basically done for the day. Such a large amount of drugs basically overwhelms their noses.

 

[Meezers]

Some dogs are double duty trained. And drugs have been know to be hidden in strong smelling food....coffee used to be the food of choice.

That said...boy that is one smart dog to alert on a fertilizer smell...go dog!

 

[snelsonbrown]

Hey there Laura,
thought about you and yours and wondered if you had got caught up in it -
Norm had to make a second run to the ship for something that DCL needed and got caught right after the bridges were taken up so he was able to make a ulee and get back to the shop - fortunalty this doesn't happen often, but its always better to be safe - DCL has the highest security which is really great - (it may be a pain for us, but I still rather have it that hard) they do watch out for their cruisers - Anyhow glad you were finally able to get on - I understand they passed out snacks and water to everyone - hope you had a great time once you got underway.
always
Shirley

 

[Laurabearz]

Hey Shirley! Yes, they passed out water... not sure about the snacks though....

Thanks again for the great gift baskets! The kids had a blast at CC with all the sand toys! And Charlie LOVED the toy car!