Triangle K9s headed to Super Bowl to help with security

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Triangle K-9s are headed to the Super Bowl in Atlanta to help provide security.

The highly skilled dogs will be joining others from across the country to sweep the crowds and equipment. Among the deploying team is Watson, a 2-year-old Labrador Retriever with Raleigh-based Stealth Vigilance. Watson is a highly skilled bomb dog- one of only about 130 in the world known as a Vapor Wake canine.

"He has that training," explained Stealth Vigilance co-owner Geoff Beckwith. "It's the only patented body warrant explosives canine detection in the world.

His Vapor Wake training allows him to track explosive odors that a person may be carrying that may be coming from some type of device.

"Maybe a backpack that they may be wanting to bring into a venue that has a lot of people," said Beckwith. "Perhaps to leave the backpack there or detonate the backpack, even potentially while wearing it...but, our Vapor Wake dogs have the potential to smell the odor and track it to whoever is carrying it."

Beckwith said Vapor Wake dogs can screen about 150 people per minute.

"That's why these dogs are so important at a large event," Beckwith said. "We can screen thousands of people in a short period of time just by sniffing the air and utilizing the elements."

Watson and Beckwith also provide security at large events in the Triangle such as the DPAC and Duke football and basketball games.