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20 News India Times (June 27, 2026 - July 03, 2026) July 03, 2026 06/06-06//26-sd 08/15-08/07/26-sd TEJAS S. KAPADIA, ESQ. Waldwick, NJ 07463 201-632-1529 tejas@kapadialaw.com Real Estate, Business, Wills (Estate Planning), Immigration & General Law, Practicing in New York & New Jersey. Enrolled Agent with IRS. 08/15-08/07/26-sd 07/03/26-07/23/27-sd HEMISH S. KAPADIA, CPA, EA, MBA, MS SUSHIL T. KAPADIA, CPA, EA, ACA Enrolled Agent th IRS, Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Accountant, Former Tax Auditor & Assistant to Income Tax Commissioner - NYC. 44+ years in practice. Tel: (201) 444-4648 ACCOUNTANTS/CPA ANJAY ACCOUNTAX SERVICE NJ LLC HarishHathiwala ,CPA Specializing in Individual • Business • Corporation New Business Set Up Service Jersey City: (201) 656-2000 NY City: (212) 714-1988 Central Jersey: (908) 837-9030 Orlando: (407) 403-6582 Accounting ,Auditing , IncomeTax Small Business and Non-profit Org. BUSINESS/SERVICES DIRECTORY M any of the hounds arrive with only the instincts in- herited from their English ancestors, who were bred to hunt small woodland creatures, not clementines and meat sandwiches. Before entering the program, dogs must demonstrate the desired tem- perament (confident, affable, adaptable, unflappable) and drive. Around humans, they should be friendly but not extreme people-pleasers like their Labrador peers. “We look for dogs that are social, but not so social they’d rather hang with the people versus doing a job,” Anderson said. They must be medically sound and athletically fit, as well. (Ditto for the handlers, who require well-oiled knees for frequent bending and the upper-body strength to pull suspect bags off a carou- sel while tethered to a dog.) The beagles typically enter service between the ages of 1 and 3 - young adults in dog years - and work straight until about age 9. Once enrolled in the program, the dogs live in government-run kennels, initially at the training center and later by their designated airport or seaport. The accommodations are staffed around- the-clock and contain the usual pet ac- coutrements of beds, blankets and toys, according to CBP. Most retirees spend their golden years loafing on the sofa in their adoptive home, a first taste of domestic life for many. Before the handlers arrive from their respective airports - currently Seattle- Tacoma International, Chicago O’Hare International andWashington Dulles International - the dogs will sniff, sit and snack their way through six to eight weeks of basic training. Once their part- ners join them, they will train together for up to 10 weeks, depending on the course. Through repetition and positive reinforcement, the beagles will learn to identify the scents of prohibited items in progressively more challenging scenarios. “The ultimate goal is for the handler to trust that the dog will be able to find it without them knowing where it is,” said Thanisha Reyes, a canine training specialist. Before the teams attempt a “blind” search, in which the handlers do not know the location of the targets, they will face relatively simple tasks, such as playing “find it” with a single mango or a pound of pork in a suitcase. To increase the difficulty level, the instructor may pile or stack the bags, or mix in a red herring, such as apple-scented lotion, parsley flakes or tilapia, all of which are permit- ted into the country. “They’re not getting paid to find lemon curd,” Anderson said. To expose the canines to the sights and sounds, and legs and luggage wheels, of their future office, they will pile into the school vehicle for field trips to the airport. They typically start in an empty terminal and then advance to an active area, practicing on dummy luggage and eventually real passengers’ belongings. The instructor, upping the difficulty level, may place a suitcase on a baggage claim belt, pushing the dogs to sniff at the speed of luggage carousel. ‘He already knows smell equals treat’ On the fourth day of basic training for Atlas, Argo and Scooby, Jones placed pungent specimens from the five scent categories inside covered bins and roller bags with ventilation holes. The air was redolent of compost. During Atlas’s first run through the course, the beagle stuck his head in the opening like a child mashing his face into a cookie jar. For the luggage test, Jones pressed his palm on the suitcase, releasing a puff of smells. Atlas caught a whiff, lowered his backside and awaited his reward. “He already knows smell equals treat,” Jones noted, impressed. In an adjacent training room, Reyes’s students were entering week three of their 10-week course. Today’s lesson was to find one apple and six pounds of beef wrapped in clothing and packed in suitcases strewn about like unclaimed luggage in baggage claim. Rosemary Onyegbule volunteered to go first. She disappeared out a back door and retrieved Simon from a kennel, his tail ticking like a metronome. He bobbed and weaved between bags, his nose vacu- uming the air. He passed a blue roller bag and boomeranged back, the scent hook- ing him. He placed two paws on the hard case and sat down. Nailed it. “It’s an ebb and a flow, a cha-cha,” said Anderson, who trained dogs for 19 years. “Sometimes you’re going to let the dog take the lead, because they’ve got the nose, and then sometimes if they miss an area, you may need to take the lead. You have to learn how to move together.” Isa, a beagle mix with a black-and- white speckled coat, was up next. A Maryland family could no longer care for her, so USDA took ownership of her after she passed medical, temperamental and behavioral tests, including an excursion to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. In her first two classes, she had failed to match with a handler. It happens, An- derson said, comparing a connection to that of dance partners. But Isa and Reyad Abdulrahman González seemed to click. When Isa started to stray, eager to say hello to the spectators watching from the sidelines, González redirected her focus with a gentle tug on her leash and a tap on a piece of luggage. It worked. She discovered the apple and meat in quick succession. “The dogs have a lightbulb moment,” Anderson said, “and they are so proud of themselves.” Isa even taught herself a new skill. After Reyes removed the bag with meat from the lineup, pushing it into a far corner, the little beagle guided her handler back to it. Humans refer to the move as double- dipping. To beagles, it’s detection. The wet-nosed, treat-loving pups who guard against smuggled goods By Andrea Sachs Continued From Page 11