Metro Airport K9 units gear up for busy summer travel season

ROMULUS, Mich. (FOX 2) - As the busy summer travel season kicks off, K9 officers at airports across the country are ready to do a specific job.

Celo the beagle sniffs out food and plants coming into Detroit Metropolitan Airport from international flights.

"You don't want these insects, pests or plant diseases and livestock diseases coming in from out of the country that can affect our own crops and livestock in America because we don't have those diseases here," said Rachel Ankenbauer, U.S. Customs. 

On Thursday Detroit Metro, TSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, conducted simulated searches to show the media how the dogs do their jobs.

"One of the biggest things is the unattached bags, the people, the passengers, we're called out on all the unattended bags," said Rachel Farmer, Metro Airport police K9 officer.

The dogs go through a lengthy training process and they provide another layer of security at Detroit Metro.

Mark Howell, from the TSA, explained what their dogs look for.

"They're sniffing out things that would be potentially dangerous, those explosives and the components that make them - we're trying to keep those off of aircraft, that's our job," said Howell.

TSA calls these K9 officers mobile detection units and they take their job very seriously.

"They hit on lots of different things," Howell said. "We don't go into the list of things the dogs are trained to sniff out, but there are a lot of different ingredients they will pick up on."