Bomb-sniffing dogs can now find bombs before they are even bombs

While you're busy waiting in hour-long lines for your turn in the TSA's X-ray machine this summer, hundreds of pups will have their noses to the ground trying to find bombs before they're even constructed.

As terrorists increasingly adapt new measures to get around security — like enclosing explosives in caulk to prevent vapors from reaching dogs' noses — the TSA is teaching canine teams not just how to detect the individual ingredients that make a bomb, but how to identify the presence of potentially dangerous combinations of chemicals, The New York Times reports.

"So we're now asking dogs not just to find a needle in a haystack — now we're also saying to the dog, 'We need you to find any sharp object in the haystack,'" researcher Clive Wynne said.

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Training takes the dogs between 15 and 25 weeks, in which they learn how to sniff warehouses, cargo bays, and the interiors of airplanes. TSA trainers first introduce the scents of chemicals most commonly used in explosives, like TNT, C4, commercial dynamite, and Semtex, but the exact combinations are kept a secret.

To date, more than 900 canine teams are working across the country to keep travelers safe. Watch some of the class of 2016 at work, below. Jeva Lange