It's a game of hide and seek that in real life could save lives. Explosives were hidden in buses, an airplane, in trucks, in mail, and in luggage at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Canine detection teams from around Southern California were here in the desert Tuesday to sniff it out.
It was part of a training session hosted by Palm Springs Police and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
There was an elaborate setup. Four trucks, borrowed from FedEx, were lined up in a parking lot. One truck carried 1,000 pounds of real explosives.
Canines went through the course one by one with their handlers and sniffed out the explosives.
Gus Lozano, with Los Angeles County Metro, and his canine-partner Napoleon, took us with them on the Fedex course.
"(We) constantly train with the real stuff," Lozano said. "When (Napoleon's) out there working, he's looking for it."
Napoleon circled and sniffed heavily around truck one but it wasn't until he got to truck number two that he gives his handler "the signal". It's an alert something isn't right.
"He looks at me and he sits down," Lozano said. Most bomb detection dogs are trained to either sit or stare at their handler when they detect explosives. They're rewarded with play and there was a lot of play during Tuesday's training.
Harvey Reed, with the Palm Springs Police Department, said the event tested dog and handler skills. It also brought together more than 40 law enforcement bomb detection teams from the local, state, and federal level.
"We're able to share information and exchange ideas about explosive detection," Reed said.
Explosives were hidden in large quantities and small. Some types are actually used by terrorists. Dogs are trained to recognize hundreds of explosive scents. Some can recognize thousands, an officer tells us.
One officer, who patrols federal buildings, says the training is valuable.
"Dogs are like people they have good days and bad days. It all depends, nothing's 100 percent."
This was the third canine training session here in Palm Springs.
Reed says they plan to have another soon.
In another lot, buses from the Sunline Transit Agency were parked. One bus had a very small explosive hidden in one of the windows.
