This Dog Is A Pet Detective Who Helps Find Missing Cats!
This Dog Is A Pet Detective Who Helps Find Missing Cats!
Molly, a cocker spaniel, has been trained to help find missing cats without scaring them away! Find out more here!
Molly, a cocker spaniel, has been trained to help find missing cats without scaring them away! Find out more here!
In a recent article for The Guardian, Colin Butcher spoke about his cocker spaniel, Molly, who helps him in his business: finding missing pets. But if that weren't amazing enough, Molly has a unique specialty. She sniffs out people's cats in such a way as to not scare them away, so Butcher can get them home to their families. According to Butcher:
Molly is the world’s first trained cat detection dog. Her job is to rescue missing [cats].
Colin Butcher
The Guardian, May 5, 2017
After years of struggling to find cats, Butcher, a former police detective, remembered the dogs of the K-9 units who would sniff out drugs and wondered if they couldn't do the same with cats.
I figured, if a dog can be trained to find amphetamines, then it can be trained to find cats.
Colin Butcher
The Guardian, May 5, 2017
So, he found Molly, a then-18-month-old cocker spaniel who, without sufficient stimulation, had been passed between three owners in under two years. 12 other dogs had failed cat-searching training, but Molly passed with flying colors and learned to find the cats and immediately lie down so that they wouldn't be frightened away.
She had to be “cat-tested”, so we took her to a farm with a dozen cats to see if she would chase them. She didn’t even bark. Her focus was on interacting with her handler.
Colin Butcher
The Guardian, May 5, 2017
Now, Molly has found 11 cats this year and returned them safely to their families, and Butcher could not be more thrilled with her success.
Many people said that training a dog to rescue cats was crazy; that all dogs chased cats and it couldn’t be done. Nothing has felt quite so rewarding as seeing it work.
Colin Butchere
The Guardian, May 5, 2017
What do you think of this amazing, cat-rescuing dog? Talk to us about it in the comments below, and share with your friends to see what they think!