Meet the spring-a-leak spaniel with a nose for burst pipes
BRITAIN’S first water leak sniffing dog has been hired to spot burst pipes.
Snipe, a 16-month-old cocker spaniel, underwent weeks of training by exmilitary personnel to detect problem pipes by sniffing out the tiny amounts of chlorine in tap water.
The dog has now been recruited by United Utilities (UU), which serves around three million homes in the North West. Snipe will be used in trials to assess if it can pinpoint water being wasted in rural areas where leaks are hard to detect.
Its owner Ross Stephenson, 32, tmanaging director of Cape SPC, a pest control firm, starting putting Snipe through its paces late last year.
He said: “I started off with normal tap water, then put in extra chlorine. We just put a tiny bit in, so the dog understands the strongest odour is the one we want them to find. We would have eight glass pots, one of them will have it in and every time the dog sniffs that pot he will get rewarded – a tennis ball.”
Mr Stephenson, from Bristol, set up his firm after leaving the Royal Veterinary Corps two years ago, serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The firm uses the same techniques that taught dogs to search for weapons, explosives and IEDS to teach them to sniff out bed bugs – and now water leaks.
Hannah Wardle, UU’S regional leakage manager, said: “The North West of England is a notoriously wet region, and sorting the leaks from the puddles can be a real challenge. This is where we hope Snipe will come into his own. His sensitive nose can detect mains water at incredibly low concentrations.”