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Partly Cloudy Bed bug sniffing dog comes to Lynbrook
Arrow Exterminating's newest weapon against crawling critters
The newest weapon in the fight against bug bugs is none other than man’s best friend. In this case, it’s Polly, a petite female rat terrier that might just lick you to death before she sniffs out the creepy crawlers.
And Arrow Exterminators’ owners Jackie Grabin and Debby Tappan, along with Polly’s trainer, Tom Jordan warn those bugs that go bump in the night that Polly will be on your trail before you can find your next meal. “The dog is very effective,” Grabin said. “She’s improved our ways to make inspections. This is the same theory behind when dogs are trained to sniff termites or dogs are trained to sniff narcotics at an airport.”
Armed with a keen sense of smell, Polly, who is two years old, was brought by the owners from a dog-training facility, Iron Heart Training Center and High Performance Working Dogs LLC in Kansas City, Missouri last month. Polly underwent nine months of training at the facility, learning how to sniff out bed bugs. Despite severe snow, two employees, Jordan and Rudy Hofler, went to Missouri and picked up the nine-pound Polly who they said packs lots of power when it comes time to work.
“There were several dogs to chose from, but we felt she was the best,” Jordan said. “She has such a drive to want to hunt down bed bugs. When ever we put her harness on, she wants to pull and search every crevice and crack.” Jordan, who recently passed a 60-hour certification course to train dogs, is currently working with Polly to sharpen her bug-fighting skills. The dog undergoes a minimum of one hour of training every morning and afternoon. “We do different things in training including making different noises where we want her to search and she is very smart,” Jordan said.
Polly is trained to detect all stages of bed bugs, from eggs to nymphs and adults. Whenever she works, Jordan puts a harness on Polly. Usually, she begins to sniff and then starts scratching to alert Jordan that she has found the bugs. Jordan also has vials of bugs that he hides in various places that Polly looks for during training.
