The Canada Border Services Agency now has two new workers. Blizzard, a two-year-old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, is the airport's first currency sniffer dog that has the task of trying to locate large sums of contraband cash. Rusty is a two-year-old Beagle mix that specializes in sniffing out illegal food, plants and animals. Both animals work at the Calgary International Airport in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
"A currency sniffing service animal is certainly new to me," says Bryce Paton, spokesman
for the Calgary Airport Authority. He does not think the retriever will have much business.
The Border Services Agency now has four dogs that patrol the airport. The dogs that
sniff for food, plants and animals are the busiest. They assist in making approximately
15 busts per day. According to Rusty's handler, Laura Hiscott, "He finds things
in the weirdest places. He found chicken pot pies in the bottom of someone's golf
bag." The food and plant canines are required to stay in kennels because of their
sensitivity to the food that is prepared in the home.
The cash sniffing dogs are allowed to stay with their handlers in their homes. "It's
him and me 24/7," says Blizzard's handler Rob McLeod. "I get to bring him to work
four days out of my eight that I come to work."