Earlier this year, an English water company called United Utilities hired two spaniels to help them find leaky pipes. The dogs are Snipe, who’s a Cocker Spaniel, and Denzel, a Springer Spaniel. They are tasked with tracking down underground leaky pipes using the scent of chlorine. This is not an easy job, as these pipes are often deep inside the ground, but the two have been extremely successful at it and helped the firm save a lot of money.
The dogs work by first sniffing a bit of chlorine to know what smell they’re looking for. People originally used this ability of spaniels to track down scents for hunting and finding missing people. United Utilities uses a combination of advanced satellite technology and their on-the-ground dogs to find these leaky pipes and take care of them.
Two Dobermans and Two Northern Inuits Helped Film a Recent Star Wars Movie
Disney recently released a spin-off film to their popular 'Star Wars' franchise, called 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'. The film revolves around one of the franchises' most iconic characters, Han Solo, and reveals various details regarding his past adventures that predated the film trilogies. Two pairs of canines, the first, a couple of Dobermans called Blackie and Boyce, and the second, two Northern Inuits named Saxon and Elsa, were used in the film production to play as “Corellian hounds”. These are alien canines from a planet called Corellia, who are basically a very deformed and fur-less version of dogs.
The dogs wore full-body costumes which turned them into hideous creatures, with the only part of their bodies that remained exposed being their paws. These costumes took a very long time to make, as they had to look realistic while also being fully functional and safe for the dogs. Saxon and Elsa, the pair of Northern Inuits, have apparently been featured in a Hollywood production before. They appeared as the dire wolves from “Game of Thrones”, so it’s good to know that they already have some experience.
Bird-Hunting Dogs Are Used to Save New Zealand's Native Bird Population
New Zealand lies somewhere along the pacific ocean and hosts some of the most exotic animals, especially birds. Unfortunately, it also hosts a lot of predators who end up devouring these precious birds, causing their population to dwindle and disappear due to their rarity. Various bird species, such as the Kiwi, a flightless bird that looks like a large piece of hair with a beak, are quickly being dispatched by various pests, such as rats and stoats.
The New Zealand government recently put together a special task unit of canines that specializes in tracking and hunting birds for the exact opposite purpose. These dogs are trained to help save New Zealand’s exotic bird population by finding them and helping clear out the predators that try to hunt them down. So far the government managed to clear about 100 islands of these predators, but the threat still exists.
This Golden Retriever Received An Honorary Degree From Johns Hopkins University
It’s quite rare to meet a dog with better educational credentials than most people, but this is exactly the case with this amazing Golden Retriever called Kirsch. His owner, Carlos Mora, goes to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. This is quite an expensive university, which is why Kirsch is fortunate to be Mora’s service dog. Many high schools and universities allow for service dogs to accompany their owners, which is always an amazing sight to see due to the beauty of that kind of relationship.
Kirsch got to enjoy the double pleasure of getting to spend time with his owner Mora, while also getting educated and even getting a degree! Johns Hopkins University decided to allow Kirsch to accompany Mora to her graduation and even asked him to wear his very own graduation outfit, including the iconic graduation hat. Kirsch ended up getting an honorary degree while his owner received her Masters of Science in Counselling.
Some Dogs Help With the Laundry
Dogs can do quite a large range of activities if they are trained properly. They obviously don’t have the ability to make complex decisions when it comes to laundry such as “don’t put the white clothes with the colored ones” (it also doesn’t help that they’re color blind), but they can still do some very physical functions like taking the clothing out of the laundry basket and putting it into the washing machine. Apparently, there are service dogs who are now using a laundry machine specifically tailored for dogs to help disabled people. The idea was created by a company called JTM Service.
This dog-friendly washing machine is called the “Woof to Wash”, and as the name implies, it starts working once the dog starts barking. The entire thing is built for a dog’s abilities and body, including a rope knot that the service canine can use to open the hatch. Another cool function is that the door can be opened by using the paw pedal, which can be seen at the bottom right of the machine. The service dog puts all the clothes from the laundry basket into the machine, barks, waits for it to finish, opens it, takes out the laundry, and puts it back in the laundry basket!