Natural Resources: Plant Health Safeguarding Specialist, Canine Handler
Natural Resources
Plant Health Safeguarding Specialist, Canine Handler: Teri-Lyn Nagao
By Alice Keesing • Photo by Scott T. Kubo
“Atlas, are you ready to go?” Teri-Lyn Nagao calls as she pulls a freshly clean collar and leash from the dryer in the back of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) office under the airport.
Atlas eagerly trots to meet her, tail wagging, ears perked. Teri-Lyn and Atlas are off to the post office for a night of sniffing out contraband. They’re on the lookout for outbound fresh fruits, vegetables and soil that could carry bugs and diseases that would devastate Mainland agriculture crops.
Teri-Lyn and Atlas have worked together as a team since they both joined the USDA six years ago. Atlas came to the job as an obese 1-year-old who’d been tearing up his mistress’ house. Teri-Lyn came with a biology degree from the University of Hawai‘i and experience working as a technician with the hawksbill turtle monitoring project on the Big Island.
They met at new officer training in Frederick, Maryland. Teri-Lyn learned the regulations and operating procedures of the job as well as entomology (study of insects) and plant pathology (study of disease). Then she went to basic canine officer training where she met Atlas and started his training.
Back in Honolulu, they got on the job. Depending on which shift they’re working, Teri-Lyn and Atlas could be checking outgoing passengers at the gate, or packages rolling on the conveyer belt at shippers such as Federal Express, or at the post office.
Along with detection work and paperwork, Teri-Lyn’s first priority is taking care of Atlas. Every workday, she picks him up from H?lawa where all the working dogs reside while off duty. (Beagles are pack dogs, she explains, so they enjoy being together.) She keeps him bathed in the doggie-size bath in the office and they are constantly working on training. There are two fridges in their airport office: one with target foods (the fruits and vegetables they’re looking for) and the other with non-target foods that the dogs can sometimes zero in on (Atlas has a particular weakness for fresh bread).
Teri-Lyn enjoys the opportunities she has to be out with Atlas, meeting the public. The reaction to their work is usually positive thanks to Atlas’ presence, she says.
“The good thing about the job is it’s not law enforcement,” she says. “That was really important to me because I’m not combative; I’d rather not get into confrontational situations.”
The job does call for someone with high energy, she says, because you need to be able to pep up your dog if he’s having a slow day. You also can’t be afraid of acting silly in front of people when you’re trying to encourage your dog.
And the most rewarding part of the job is the partnership, she says.
“I go into work and open Atlas’ kennel and he is ecstatic to see me—it’s like, I haven’t seen you since yesterday!” Teri-Lyn says with a laugh. “You’ll never get that kind of greeting from a co-worker, right?”