LEE GRIMSDITCH

FORMER police dogs more used to sniffing out explosives and drugs have ‘amazed’ gas engineers with their ability to find tiny underground gas leaks.

The dogs, which have been working in Stockport recently, have been retrained to find hairline cracks in gas pipes deep underground.

Springer Spaniels Nelly, Midge and Milly have been transferred from their police duties to work for the region’s gas network firm, Cadent.

Cadent says the issue isn’t to do with gas leaking out, but water getting in, as even a tiny amount can cause them to become blocked.

David Leah, a repair team leader for Cadent, who’s worked for 41 years in the industry, said: “When we dug down to where the dogs detected something, it was spot on - or, a foot away at most.

“It was unbelievable. The dogs are going to be a great asset for us.”

The idea to use the dogs came from Rachel Endfield, a business improvement specialist in Cadent’s North West network.

She said: “Sometimes it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Water will get in through the tiniest of cracks, which can cause problems for our customers.

“I’d heard about the gas detection dogs that Steve [Foster] has trained for exactly this job.

“We’ve had them in the North West network for two days now, the first time we’ve used them, and we’ve seen some fantastic results already.”

Steve Foster is a former police dog sergeant instructor who owns the speciallytrained English Springer Spaniels.

He has worked on over 200 jobs since switching to gas detection work in 2017.

Steve explained the benefits of using specially trained sniffer dogs in the gas industry, saying: “Some escapes can be really, really difficult to find. The dogs’ noses are thought to be anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 times better than a human’s nose. So, they can find minute amounts of gas.

“That can be all you need, the golden nugget the engineers need to start with.”