If the beloved four-legged friend suddenly disappears, the misery of the owner is great. An association from Saarland, which trains animal detection dogs, can help.
Heusweiler – For many pet owners it is a nightmare scenario: the beloved four-legged friend has suddenly disappeared. Then every corner of the apartment is hastily checked, a search is made outside and the neighbors are asked. If mistress or master do not find what they are looking for, there are only calls on social media and posting search posters in the area.
If all else fails, pet owners can still turn to the “sniffer heroes”. The association from Heusweiler in Saarland helps with animal tracking dogs in the search for escaped dogs. “Schnüffelhelden” was founded more than three years ago.
Animal tracking dogs have an excellent detection rate
In the meantime, the dogs and their owners are out and about in Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate on a voluntary basis. Their work is free of charge for the animal owners, the association is financed exclusively by donations. The success rate is very high. Of the 229 dogs that were missing in Saarland in the first half of 2021, 220 were found, reported kreiszeitung.de.
One of the sniffer dogs is Toni. The Australian Shepherd male is rehearsing the emergency with his owner Corinna Speicher. Toni is tasked with tracking down another dog in a shed about ten minutes away. His owner lets him smell a cloth in a plastic bag, and off we go.
“Sniffer friend” Toni smells the cloth and runs off
Toni walks down a street, past pedestrians and cyclists. Then the dog suddenly turns into a forest, shortly after that it accelerates and runs along a dirt track towards a shed. Toni slows down, turns around and storms towards his owner.
Memory white: The search was successful. “I already noticed from his body language that he was close to his goal,” she told the German Press Agency. Police dog Jocko from Munich was also successful. He was named employee of the month for helping to arrest a burglar.
Animal tracking dogs sniff out dead Chihuahua – owner cries bitterly
The super noses are also successful in emergencies. A poodle, for example, escaped from his foster home while his mistress was in the clinic. “The lady was 80 and the dog was all she had left,” said “Sniffing Heroes” spokesman Giuseppe Alexandro Calabró. On the same day, and thus within the important 48-hour period, the sniffer dogs were able to find the poodle. A dog also acted heroically, saving a fawn from drowning.
But there is not always a happy ending. Speicher was reminiscent of a small Chihuahua that was found frozen to death days later. The owner, a tall, strong man, then cried terribly. “If you look at it that way – it concerned me a lot personally,” she said. Even if animals are sometimes only found dead, it helps the owners because they have certainty. The story of a dog that was found abandoned in front of a Lidl branch is also tragic.
