Westminster resident Blake Pruitt, 15, admits he knew little about what his father did every day until he made his short film, "Canines." early last year.

Blake's dad, Tom Pruitt, is a Maryland Transit Administration canine officer, and his son's documentary chronicles a typical day in the life of members of MTA's explosion detection canine handlers.

"I've been into filmmaking for as long as I can remember," says Pruitt, a 10th-grader at The Park School of Baltimore. "But I don't really think I knew what my father and the MTA's canine unit did on a daily basis."

Now he knows, as do others who've seen "Canines," which has been shown at film festivals and even at Baltimore's historic Senator Theatre. In fact, the film has been featured on the MTA's Web site.

It's the latest cinematic triumph for Blake, a young filmmaker who has already seen his short documentary films screened at Baltimore's "End of the World as We Know It" Film Festival and the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, Kan.

Pruitt made "Canines" and another documentary short, "Press 2 For Spanish" -- which explores public sentiment about Spanish becoming the nation's "second language" -- as part of a summer filmmaking workshop at the Park School run by Baltimore documentarian Steve Yeager.

Yeager is best known for his film, "Divine Trash," about the life and career of Baltimore filmmaker John Waters. Pruitt has attended Yeager's annual workshop for the past four summers.

For "Canines," Pruitt spent several weeks filming interviews with officials at MTA and the northern Virginia-based Transportation Security Administration's National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program.

He also spent several days following around his dad and fellow canine handlers as they put their sniffing dogs through the paces.

He emerged with a crisp, concise 11-minute documentary. The film, which he completed at age 14, has since been used as a marketing and public education tool by TSA and other law enforcement agencies around the country, including the Tucson Airport Authority, the Tampa International Airport Police and the Norfolk (Virginia) Airport Police.

"Canines" was also screened last year at an annual convention of canine handlers in San Antonio, Texas.

Judges at the Tallgrass Film Festival described "Canines" in a synopsis as: "An insight into the daily life of people who protect our buses, subways and transit systems. .... The final section of the documentary gets more personal when the officers say how their lives have changed since joining the K9 unit."

There's probably no one prouder about all this than Tom Pruitt. He happily admits he's one of his son's biggest fans and boosters.

"I remember him running around the house and making movies with his friends and editing them when he was still in grade school," Tom recalls with an approving grin. "I remember a couple of times I had to put on a collar and a shirt and be an actor in his movies."

"Canines" reveals something about highly trained, explosives-detecting dogs like Tom Pruitt's 4-year-old German Shepherd, Dora that surprises most viewers.

While searching for bombs is a deadly serious enterprise for their human handlers, for the bomb dogs themselves it's just good fun.

Tom Pruitt explains that what motivates the dogs is knowing that if they hit pay dirt, they'll be rewarded by getting to play with their favorite toys.

"If they really realized what they were looking for, they'd say, 'Are you crazy? You go look for it!' " he said as he fondly watched Dora prowl around the kitchen of the Pruitt's Westminster home. "They do it because it's fun, it's a game."

"Canines" by Blake Pruitt

"Press 2" by Blake Pruitt

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