OXFORD, Ohio — Got a leak in your water service line? Call Duke the water dog. Duke, owned and trained by Elisa Jones, once found a leak on a 1,000 foot line in about 20 minutes.He is one of only a few water leak detection dogs in the United States.

“I have been contacted by homeowners who have a leak in their service line between their meter and their house,” Jones said. “If water is leaking somewhere in the house the dog can detect it, even through the concrete in a slab house.  

“The dog can detect water on farms, on a golf course if they have a leak in the irrigation system,” she explained. “Municipalities who have their own water service, they can contact me if they’re losing water on a certain block on a street, and if they have narrowed it down to the block I can find it. The dog is quicker and more efficient than any of the acoustic equipment that is on the market.”

What the dog smells is the treated water, the chlorine, fluoride, and other chemicals agencies use to make water safe. For Duke to search for well water, the well would need to be chlorinated.

Jones is a licensed Ohio water and wastewater operator and has been in public utility work for a long time. When she was doing an inspection with the Ohio EPA they told her about dogs that were sniffing out water main breaks. 

It was a natural fit. She soon found Cary Kessler, who had a big part in training Vessel, the first American water leak detection dog. Jones was soon off to Arkansas to train with her. She learned how to train Duke, her boxer, who was already competing in detection dog sports and holds more than 75 titles.  

“It was kind of a natural learning thing,” Jones said. “To put it into use for water was easy for me. The dog knew how to search, the dog knew how to hunt, so I just added water to his library of things to hunt for. I have used him for the city I work for but kind of as an after-hours thing. They ask if I can bring the dog because they can’t find the leak.”

Any dog breed can be trained for scent detection work but you have to find the right dog that wants to work, Jones said. They have to have a natural drive. Some dogs like to lay on the couch, and others like to be busy. Choose the right dog and he’s going to be ready to go to work every day. For the dog this, is a game, Jones said. 

She starts by having the dog hunt for treats. She works a long time in building that drive. She started one dog at 10 weeks but worked a long time just having the dog search for treats and learn to use its nose to find what it was looking for.

“Then I paired the water, or whatever I wanted the dog to find, in this case water,” she explained. “I put a treat right next to the water (about half a cup of water in a food storage container) that I want the dog to find. When the dog finds the treats, it also smells the water. 

“I pair the water with the treat, they’re right next to each other. So when the dog eats the treat, the dog smells the water,” she said. “We do that enough so that something in the dog’s brain switches from finding the treat, and smelling the water, to finding the water and getting the treat.”

How long that takes depends on the dog but about 40 repetitions of that pairing situation until the dog switches to finding the water and then getting the treat, Jones explained. It can take 35 tries, it can take 50, but it is around that 40th repetition that the dog realizes that when they find his water smell they are going to get rewarded

 Water leak detection dogs can be a real game changer for public utilities and water conservation, Jones said. Dogs can find the non-revenue water, the water that is lost in the ground that is already treated and it’s never making it to the customer. Some municipalities have 35 to 55 percent water loss, water that never makes it to the customer.

 “The best way for municipalities to find a water main break is when a farmer or a home owner finds a wet spot in their yard when it has been dry,” Jones said. “Or when it is bubbling up in the street. To me it is a game changer if the dog can find the leak before it is bubbling up or the wet spot is in the yard.”

Jones also has an online training class for scent detection. For information email walnutgrovek9@gmail.com.