At largest U.S. training site, police dogs learn to thwart attacks

By Laila Kearney, Reuters STORMVILLE, New York – At a sprawling campus north of New York City, a 3-year-old German Shepherd named Johnny frantically sniffed through seats and luggage bins on an out-of-service commuter rail train trying to catch a whiff of hidden explosive. When Johnny found a black bag with the faint scent of C-4, commonly used to blow up buildings, he sat statue-still at attention, alerting handler Kevin Pimpinelli of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police to his discovery. Photo courtesy of Yahoo   In return, Pimpinelli rewarded him with a prized chew toy. “In the real world, he can find the explosive before it gets on the train,” Pimpinelli said. “Our job is to try to prevent that device getting in.” Johnny is one of 50 of the transit authority’s police dogs being trained at its $13 million, 72-acre training center in Stormville, New York, about 70 miles [...]