The mission of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center is to serve as a consortium for programs that employ dogs to detect threats to local, regional and national security. The overarching goal is to collect and analyze genetic, behavioral and physical data, and integrate the latest scientific information in order to optimize the success and well-being of detection dogs. In order to prepare for future demands for these dogs, we will develop a detection dog breeding/training program that will implement, test, and disseminate the knowledge gained.