Sniffing and finding people - by Merlin

Sniff and find!

Merlin here, obviously I can’t type so Mum is typing this for me. I am 9½ years old and I’m a Welsh Sheepdog cross Border Collie. My nicknames include Gingerboy and Noisy Boysie!

One day Mum took me to a special field where a lady I’d never met had a pot of my favourite food, which she showed me and then she ran off! What! How rude! I barked, but she didn’t come back, so Mum asked me to sniff a cloth item in a plastic bag that the lady had dropped. It smelled of the lady, and Mum said a new word, “Trail” and then let me follow the scent. Off I went, sniffing my way until I found this lady hiding behind a bush! She was so pleased that I found her, that she gave me the pot of food. Yummy!

Sniffing people out is so much fun. It is hard work for my brain and makes me feel happy and content and calm. I don’t like other dogs much, but if I see one while I am trailing, I can cope because I have a job to do, I’m too busy to get anxious.

Since that first time I’ve sniffed out lots of different people and sniffed lots of different items. To start with these were mostly fabric, but as I got better at it Mum started asking me to sniff more difficult things - cups, bottles, purses, keys, mobile phone, cans, sticks, rocks, car door handles and bumpers, signs and trees. Some of them didn’t hold much of the person’s scent but thanks to my 300 million olfactory receptors (Mum says that’s a BIG number) I can recognise the scent and follow where the person went. They are always so pleased to see me when I find them, I sit neatly in front of them and they always have something fantastic for me to eat (I like meaty smelly special wet food best - I only get that when I trail).

Get in touch with my Mum if you fancy having a go and she will tell you more!