Scots first as dogs sniff out water leaks

● Two spaniels trained to detect chlorine are given rural trial by utility

Sniffer dogs are helping to find leaking water mains for the first time in Scotland.

Scottish Water is using a pair of specially trained dogs to help trace leaks in pipes in rural areas where the water does not always show on the surface.

The spaniels, Snipe and Denzel, aged two and three, have been trained by former military dog handlers to detect the smell of chlorine in treated water.

Scottish Water is conducting trials with Cape SPC, a pest control company based near Warrington, Cheshire, which provides the service and owns the dogs.

Snipe, a cocker spaniel, and Denzel, a springer, are finishing a trial in parts of Dumfriesshire and Ayrshire surveying Scottish Water’s trunk mains and searching for leaks before the firm decides whether to

0 Scottish Water’s Luke Jones and Craig Garment with Denzel at work in Auldgirth, Dumfries-shire

continue to use them after they found two major leaks during the exercise.

The dogs are trained by scent association and rewarded for smelling chlorine, which rises to the surface from pipes,

with “prizes” of balls, toys or treats.

Denzel was retrained after working on detecting bedbugs for hotel chains.

Craig Garment, a Scottish Water network analyst

in leakage delivery, who has been working with Cape, said: “We take our responsibility to manage water very seriously and since 2006 leakage has been reduced by over 50 per cent. We use modern technology such as ground microphones, correlators, hydrophones and other devices to pinpoint the location of underground assets and leaks.

“However, some bursts in rural locations are more difficult to pinpoint and we are always looking for innovative ways to do the job more effectively and to continue reducing leakage.

“That’s where these sniffer dogs come in and we are hoping that Snipe and Denzel can continue to demonstrate during the trial period that their sensitive noses can detect treated mains water at very low concentrations.”

He added: “When the dogs help pinpoint the locations of leaks we then come back to that point, investigate, excavate and repair the bursts and if their work in certain rural locations helps us achieve that then they could prove to be great assets to Scottish Water.”

The dogs’ sense of smell is about 40 times greater than humans’ because they have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared with our six million.