Pest Control, June 1, 2002
Loyal Termite & Pest Control Co. unleashes termite K-9
RICHMOND, VA -- Loyal Termite & Pest Control Company, Inc. recently acquired Hunter, central Virginia's first "termite detection dog." The company has been working with renowned professional dog trainer Bill Whitstine in Florida. Whitstine has trained K-9s for more than 15 years, for law enforcement officials to detect everything from drugs and fire accelerants to explosives. These termite K-9s are trained using the same conditioning as bomb and drug dogs.
Hunter is a Jack Russell terrier who was rescued as a puppy from the North Pinellas County, FL, Humane Society. To show his thanks for a second chance at life, he graduated with honors from his Termite Detection Training School.
At 3 years old, Hunter is an old pro at finding termites. He loves his job so much that he works 7 days a week doing calibration exercises to keep his nose finely tuned.
Jack Russell terriers were originally bred as hunting dogs, so Hunter was a great choice. He may be small at only 17 lbs., but his size is an advantage. He is able to get in places too small for human inspectors and larger dogs.
At best, only 15% of a structure is accessible to conventional human visual inspection techniques. To Hunter, virtually 100% of the structure can be inspected, as he is capable of detecting the termite scent at the molecular level of parts per trillion.
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