The Austin airport employs several TSA canines who actively wandering through the terminal with their human handlers, sniffing for explosives. The dogs are usually on very long leashes to allow them to wander and approach people and their luggage. Usually the handlers are respectful of Morey and me and are careful to leave distance between the two dogs. On this trip however, I was frustrated and annoyed by how the handler managed her dog.
Morey and I had just gone through security and were waiting for our pat down. This process requires me to pay attention to the TSA agent for instructions (lift your arms, lean left, etc.) and so I put Morey in a down stay and trust him to remain there. As we went to the screening area, I noticed a TSA agent standing a few feet away with her black lab. The dogs were interested in each other, but I redirected Morey and assumed the handler would move her dog to another location. Even moving to the opposite side of the screening area would have been helpful as her dog would not have been walking around within Morey's sight, but she remained where she was.
Morey was obviously distracted by the dog and I kept having to redirect him and apologize to the TSA agent patting me down. The dog handler kept circling in the same area even though her dog was also distracted and interested in Morey. Normally when people are handling their dogs in a way that interferes with my work with Morey, I remove myself from the situation, but that wasn't really possible in this case which made me even more annoyed.
If it had been someone else, I might have made a comment about the effect her decision was having on Morey's ability to focus, but I was hesitant about approaching a TSA employee with my complaint. I suppose it could have been necessary to patrol that exact same area during the exact same time that I was there, but it seems like moving six feet in the opposite direction would have still allowed the dog to do its job and avoided distracting Morey.
Annoyed by this start to my trip (which happened to be at 5:30am), I went to my gate to find my flight delayed an hour. When we finally got to Chicago for our layover, we found out our second flight was delayed. It was delayed 30 minutes, then 30 minutes more, and then another 30 minutes. By now it was 2pm and poor Morey hadn't gone out to "hurry" since 5am. I felt really bad for him, but there was not enough time to take him out and then go through security.
The bright spot of the trip was that we got the whole bulkhead row to ourselves which allowed Morey to have plenty of space to stretch out.
Morey is always excited to land in Indianapolis and knows that when we get there we will see "Grandma" shortly (yes, he definitely knows that word!) This time however, it was hard to say whether he was more excited to see Grandma or go use the Service Dog Relief Area!
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