{"id":268,"date":"2011-03-01T11:59:43","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T09:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ceidiog.com\/pr\/?p=268"},"modified":"2019-04-24T11:52:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T09:52:14","slug":"mighty-mouse-no-match-for-mitie-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceidiog.com\/pr\/news\/mighty-mouse-no-match-for-mitie-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Mighty mouse no match for Mitie dog"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the war between dogs and cats a Flintshire company has given the dog the upper hand in a field where cats have traditionally ruled the roost \u2013 mouse control.
\nFor thousands of years if mice were a problem then you got a cat \u2013 but all that could be about to change thanks to detection dog company Wagtail UK.
\nThe company, based near Holywell, have just trained Britain\u2019s first mouse detection dog, Archie, a three-year-old springer spaniel, for the Pest Control section of UK property management giant Mitie.
\nWagtail Head of Training Louise Wilson said: \u201cMice are not that hard to find, the trick is to find out how and where they are getting into a building, whether it\u2019s an office, a warehouse, a supermarket or a cinema.
\n\u201cThat was the challenge for us and it has taken us over a year to train Archie compared to the three months it normally takes to train a dog to detect something.
\n\u201cIt has been really complicated and very intensive and has taken a lot of planning but now Archie is trained and is ready to go out in the field with his handler.\u201d
\nThat handler is Alan Johnson, 33, from Sprotborough, near Doncaster, and he\u2019s looking forward to the new challenge: \u201cI love dogs. I\u2019ve got four at home and I do a bit of shooting and beating at weekends,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWhen the company came up with the idea of training a dog for mice ands they asked me to take it on I leapt at the chance and I\u2019ve really enjoyed it.
\n\u201cWagtail have been fantastic and a lot of what they\u2019ve done has been about training me to be able to work the dog.
\n\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to pinpoint is the places where mice are most active, where they are getting into a building or area and where they are nesting then we can concentrate our efforts in those places.
\n\u201cThat means we will be more efficient, both in the time we take to sort out the problem and in using resources and that\u2019s good for us and for the client.\u201d
\nAlan, who has been with Mitie for seven years, reckons he\u2019s the only person using a mouse detection dog in the UK: \u201cI\u2019m pretty unique in that respect,\u201d he said: \u201cIt\u2019s a role that will take me all over the country and Archie will be staying at home with me.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s a lovely dog, very excitable but that\u2019s what you need for this sort of work.
\n\u201cLuckily my wife, Emma, and my little girl, Heather, both love dogs too and I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll soon be part of the family.\u201d
\nLouise, who lives near Chester, said they had actually had to use the equivalent of CCTV to study the mice they used to train Archie.
\nShe said: \u201cMice leave traces of saliva and grease when they nibble through somewhere and those are traces you don\u2019t find when they are just running about but you have to recreate this naturally.
\n\u201cWe used things like plastic pipes as runs but we had to actually get the mice to use them and then have proof that they had which meant setting up the cameras overnight and then checking the footage the next day.
\n\u201cThe fact is that mice are also different in different parts of the country. Birmingham mice leave a different trace to London mice or North Wales mice so we had to take that into account to but we have done the tests and we\u2019re confident that if mice are getting into your warehouse then Archie will find out exactly where they are getting in.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s just the latest in a list of new applications that Wagtail are developing for the incredible sense of smell of man\u2019s best friend.
\nWagtail UK was founded by ex-RAF Police dog handler Collin Singer in 2003 and trains dogs for a range of duties including work with the UK Border Agency where they and their Wagtail handlers are on constant duty searching for immigrants at the Channel ports of Northern France.
\nThey also train dogs in drug and explosive detection and have been widely used by police forces in England and Wales but the use of dogs in wildlife protection and also in pest control is seen as a growth area.
\nLouise has twice been out to South Africa to set up a scheme that trains dogs to track down the world\u2019s fastest land animal, the elusive and endangered cheetah, by finding their scats \u2013 their poo.
\nShe also believes dogs can be used in finding evidence of the UK\u2019s own threatened animals such as pine martens and water voles but it was a departure when Mitie came to them looking to use a dog in pest control.
\nShe said: \u201cI studied Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Chester University and I see huge potential for the use of dogs in this field because they are able to find animals in a non-invasive way.
\n\u201cIt is easy to find out that mice are in your property but not so easy to find out how they\u2019re getting in – that\u2019s the key to solving your mouse problem and that\u2019s what Archie and Alan can do.
\n\u201cAt Wagtail we also have some amazing ideas and projects running with regard to a conservation dog section here in the UK and we really want to hear from people who are interested in using dogs in that field or indeed in any other area where we can use a dog\u2019s nose to sniff out a solution to a problem.\u201d
\nLouise, who joined Wagtail UK six years ago, initially as an unpaid volunteer, has worked with detection dogs on places as diverse as Wembley and the QE2 and has five dogs of her own.
\nThe 28-year-old has already been named as the winner of the Women In Business Award at the Flintshire Business Week Awards and has had her work with the Wagtail UK recognised with a North Wales Criminal Justice Board certificate.
\nFor more information regarding Wagtail UK Ltd and the use of conservation dogs within the UK contact Louise Wilson on info@wagtailuk.com or louise.wilson@wagtailuk.com or go to www.wagtailuk.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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