I have been reminded that my exceptional talents are highly sought after in certain quarters and I am missing out on what is rightly mine.
The Boss was telling me about Sheldon, a Labrador- Golden Retriever cross who wasn’t up to scratch as a guide dog for the blind but found a second life tracking down arsonists.
His story appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last week and Sheldon has been knocking back interviews, speaking engagements and autograph signings ever since.
The sort of thing I’d be good at.
After failing guide dog school, this pooch was plucked from a dull life of obscurity by an insurance company and sent off to train to detect petrol and other accelerants where arson is suspected.
They call him an “Arson K9” - how cool is that?
All he needed to launch his career was 200 hours of training over four weeks. On his first job, he and his handler were sent to a car yard where a suspicious fire had burned several vehicles.
The authorities had video footage of somebody running away from the car yard before the fire but there was no evidence of how the fire started.
Until Sheldon went into overdrive. It took him just 30 seconds to zero in on what turned out to be a Molotov cocktail, buried under the rubble from one of the cars.
And, as you would expect, he was fed handsomely after that little performance.
And food is the thing, of course. I took particular note of his handler’s description of the training regime.
Texan firefighter John Tadlock said he uses an eye-dropper to deposit tiny drops of a 50% petrol solution around the place and lets them dry before sending Sheldon off to find them. Sheldon has to sit tight and not move once he finds where it is. For that, he gets a treat.
“We train three to five times a day. Every time he performs he gets a snack. He gets fed on performance.”
Did you get that? Fed on performance! Is that a hound dog’s dream come true?
I reckon I could find hundreds of petrol drops all along the river - at any time of day. Since I can smell about 100,000 times better than The Boss, how can he argue? I sit down, get a feed. Sit down, get a feed. Just like that.
The Boss reckons the NSW Fire Department has been using accelerant detection dogs since the mid-90s, so it surprises me I haven’t been called into action. I would prefer to do it around here, of course.
Except The Boss says most of our local firebugs seem to use old-fashioned matches.
I never thought of that. I could easily starve waiting for accelerant to turn up. Woof!
6°C