When dogs… detect water leaks by sniffing

In Pleine-Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine), this female dog does not look like the others: she has a special talent. It identifies water leaks by the smell of chlorine. “In her head she goes to look for her toy. We made her assimilate the smell of the leak and that of her toy. In the end, she does not go to work”, says Nathalie Delon. This canine technician is one of the few experts in this new practice tested for two years.

It is commissioned by the water union of this town, which deplores six million liters leak every year. To detect them, technicians traditionally listen to the sound of escaping water. The dogs come to locate those that cannot be heard, up to three or four meters underground. With 90% success, man’s best friend has just found a funny job.