All dressed up in a shiny new red shirt, little Opelika could not stand still in the anteroom of the City Council chambers. And who could blame her? In a few minutes she would meet the mayor of this Alabama city for which she is named. Her meltingly calm mother, Lily, ignored her fidgeting.
They were being honored this day for their community service, and midway through the presentation, as little ones will do, Opelika stole the show from the starchy lawmakers: She barked.
Opelika and Lily, yellow Labrador retrievers, are part of the Canine Performance Sciences Program at Auburn University, which breeds and trains dogs to use their powerful sense of smell to keep people safe. After a year of preparation, Opelika will probably be placed with a government agency or a private security firm to sniff out bombs, narcotics or other threats.
[For more of this story, written by Ethan Hauser, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07...;pgtype=sectionfront]
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