Brody the tick finder

Does anyone else have a corgi that "finds" ticks - or other things? Brody (who usually is not a snuggler / snuffler) will snuffle Lilly and when he finds a tick he will nudge the spot with his nose and leave a big wet spot. He's pretty much 100% on this and any time I think he just snuffling and check out the spot... sure enough there it is. The ticks are usually so small that I couldn't feel them when I was checking her for ticks.

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Permalink Reply by Julia on June 25, 2011 at 1:40am

What a useful dog! Can you hire him out? Maybe at the gate at the dog park, as people are leaving, charge them a few bucks to sniff out their ticks.

I did see a tv show about a beagle who sniffed out termites. Every time he put his paw on the wall, he got a cookie. That dog really knew how to work the system.

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Permalink Reply by Becky S on June 28, 2011 at 12:55pm

Hey I never thought of that, he could earn his kibble. But sometimes he sniffs for quite a while before he finds one, so the other dogs would have to be as passive about the whole thing as Lilly is, she'll just roll over and let the snuffling begin.

I also saw a show on someone who trained a dog to find mold in people's houses.

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on June 28, 2011 at 1:41pm

Lyme Disease is a concern in WI, thanks to people who thoughtfully(?) exported surplus deer from Vermont (according to my bro in River Falls). The deer ticks that carry it are smaller than wood ticks. Hard to find until they're gorged with blood.

I put Advantix on Al a month ago, at the bottom end of the dosage range, the Friday night before we headed out to tick country (east side of Cascade Mts. in WA state). I think it's generally effective, but I was surprised to find a tick on him next Tuesday. Perhaps it's more effective after a couple days' time to spread around, but this was quite close to an application point.

The bite was surrounded by a swelling wide as a quarter and thick as two nickels. Al never flinched when I dug the head out -- ticks exude a neurotoxin to numb the area and avoid detection -- this may be the cause of tick paralysis, which is promptly relieved by tick removal.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on June 28, 2011 at 1:54pm

you should train him to sniff out tumors. I have seen documentaries on dogs that do that. Very high demand for that sort of thing. Its awesome that he has taught himself to sniff out ticks. Frank only sniffs out food and cats......

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Permalink Reply by Becky S on June 28, 2011 at 2:01pm

if only, Brody pretty much only does what he wants, so I guess it's good that he's found this that he "wants" to do. Sure enough, yesterday we went to the dog trails in the park, Lilly gets to be off leash as she has a super recall, so goes through a lot more of the underbrush and last night he found another tick. So small I would not have felt it and it hadn't "latched" on yet. We do treat for fleas and ticks monthly and get lyme's shot... but they are really thick in some areas around here.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on June 28, 2011 at 6:16pm

That is a great skill Brody has! Much better than my Sparty's ability to tell me the phone is ringing and where it is.. I guess if dogs can be trained to sniff out cancer a tick would not be so impossible.