Messi the dog is retiring from the TSA after work screening travelers
Newsy
The 8-year-old Labrador Retriever worked at Reagan National Airport, and was the TSA's canine calendar dog of the month in February.
Meet Messi. His handlers say "he was clearly born to work for the TSA," and said when he wasn't screening passengers he enjoyed watching airplanes and playing in the grass at the popular Gravelly Point field, near D.C.'s Reagan National Airport.
TSA
This good boy is now retiring from service with the Transportation Security Administration as one of hundreds of the canines that train each year to work as passenger screening agents at U.S. airports.
Messi and dogs like him spend about 16 weeks learning how to adapt to the hustle and bustle of busy airports, and to meet their handlers, with whom they'll form deep work bonds.
The TSA says there are more than 1,000 canine handler teams that deploy to support screening and security operations around the country. Some of them, like Messi, are trained as explosion detection dogs at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland in San Antonio, Texas.
