Chemical-detecting dog just wants to play

By AINSLEY THOMSON

Norm's nose has led him all the way from Toowoomba, Australia, to Hamilton, New Zealand.

Over the next week that nose - which is one million times more sensitive than a human nose - will be busy sniffing out chemically contaminated sites around the Waikato.

The 7-year-old golden retriever-labrador cross is the first dog in the world especially trained to detect chemical residues.

Norm was brought to New Zealand by Environment Waikato and the Waikato Pesticides Awareness Committee to find some of the estimated 5000 to 8000 contaminated sites in the region that could be a risk to grazing stock or people.

The 10-day trip is the first time Norm - named after Australia's National Organochlorine Residue Management programme - has been out of his homeland, and so far the frisky dog has had no trouble adjusting.

Joining him on the trip is Breeze - a 3-year-old chocolate labrador under training - and their human colleagues at the Queensland Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries, veterinary officer Dr Allison Crook and stock inspector Greg Horrocks.

The most important trait that both Norm and Breeze share is surprisingly not their keen sense of smell but their love of play.

"All they want to do is play, all the time. They don't stop," said Dr Crook.

From the age of seven weeks they are encouraged to play with toys. The trainers then put an odour of chemical residue on the toys. Over time the dogs learn to find odour-soaked toys that have been buried in the ground, and eventually they are able to detect the odour in open environments.

The dogs are trained to detect organochlorines - more commonly known as DDT and dieldrin.

There was no danger to the dogs, Dr Crook said, because they were not exposed to the actual chemicals, they just smell the odour.

The dogs' noses are 98 per cent accurate and can find amounts as small as five parts per billion.

People have spent thousands of dollars attempting to find toxic soils using modern technology, and it is hoped Norm will shorten the process.

"You could take thousands of soil samples and still not get what you are looking for. But Norm is quick, efficient and accurate," said Dr Crook.

A Waikato Pesticides Awareness Committee spokesman, Graham McBride, said the Australians were keen to obtain research data that Environment Waikato and the University of Waikato had done to assess Norm's accuracy over sites known to be contaminated.

Mr McBride said it was hoped a New Zealand dog could be trained to find contaminated sites.

The Australian team will sniff out about 15 sites before they return to Toowoomba next Monday.