Future Guide Dogs Train At BWI, Learn How To Navigate Airport Security: Photos

LINTHICUM, MD — Future guide dogs recently took an educational visit to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The good boys and girls practiced going through the security checkpoints. The pooches also sniffed around the baggage claim and explored the check-in counters.

This experience will help the guide dogs in training when they graduate and return to the airport to lead somebody with limited vision.

The 14 dogs were all from the Baltimore Puppy Raising Region of Guiding Eyes for the Blind. The trip came in partnership with the Transportation Security Administration.

Christopher Murgia, TSA's federal security director for Maryland, said the training helped TSA officers brush up on the policies for screening service animals.

“The orientation session was a hit with the dog trainers, the TSA officers and of course with the dogs. There was plenty of tail wagging,” Murgia said in a press release after the puppies visited on Oct. 17. “The collaborative effort benefitted the guide dogs, the airport and TSA and will go a long way to ensuring that the dogs and their eventual owners will have a smooth checkpoint experience in the future.”

These airports have also hosted similar TSA checkpoint orientations:

• Greater Binghamton Airport
• Elmira Corning Regional Airport
• Buffalo Niagara International Airport
• LaGuardia Airport
• Westchester County Airport
• Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport
• Long Island MacArthur Airport