Every (explosive-sniffing) dog has their (graduation) day

Front Royal, Virginia CNN —

In the back of a gymnasium, Maggie marked her success in quickly identifying one suitcase that had traces of gunpowder from a pile of luggage with a celebratory handful of kibble.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ National Canine Academy, tucked away in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, puts explosive-sniffing dogs-to-be through a grueling five-month boot camp where they learn to detect thousands of different explosives.

Those who successfully graduate the training program go on to patrol some of the country’s most high-profile events like the Super Bowl, the presidential inauguration and the upcoming Republican and Democratic National conventions.

Maggie, a dog trained in explosives and accelerant detection, provides a demonstration of her newly-certified skills following the graduation ceremony. Having determined which suitcase contained a substance that it shouldn’t, Tara sat in front of the case and awaited her reward from her handler. An AFT Explosives Canine pin sits next to a training certificate. Alana Blanc, 12, pets detection dog Tara.

In a brief ceremony Friday for this years’ graduates at the sprawling compound, seven labrador retrievers and their human handlers stood before family and friends to be presented with their hard-earned law enforcement badges.

The graduates — siblings Calvin, Oakley and Murphy, who are going to Dallas, Atlanta and Phoenix respectively; Maggie and her brother Zeus, who are going to Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans; Tara, the barker of the group, moving to Oklahoma City; and Derby, who is moving to Huntsville and will work at all of the University of Alabama football games — will join the approximately 45 ATF explosives-sniffing dogs