Meet the dogs working for Southern Water in rural Hampshire

The water company has been working with Cape SPC, the UK’s only canine-assisted leak detection service, since January to investigate how dogs can help identify leaks in hard-to-access parts of rural Hampshire.

The dogs are trained to sniff out chlorine present in treated water, either from surface leaks or underground. When they find leaks, they will lie down when they find an area of interest, allowing their handler to confirm a leak by testing any surface water for chlorine, or to log the location for follow-up by Southern Water’s teams.

 So far, Cape's dogs have identified more than 20 areas of interest, with most confirmed to be active leaks.

Dr Nick Mills, director of environment and innovation at Southern Water, said that the dogs had been “a game changer” when it comes to finding leaks.

He said: “Rural leaks are very hard to find, especially if they are next to a busy road. And watermains in rural areas are much further apart, so sound doesn’t travel as well if we are using acoustic discovery methods in these environments.

One of the water detection dogs, Milo (Image: Chris Atkinson)

“We have had a 95 per cent success rate with the dogs, so they are finding them well.”

Dr Mills said that the dogs would be used to find both active and speculative leaks in mains water pipes in rural areas.

Luke Jones, the director of Cape SPC said that he was inspired to start training dogs to detect water leaks after seeing a similar business in Australia approximately eight years ago, saying that Cape is “the first company in Europe to do this”.

He said: “The project is going really well, we were confident from the start. If it is done well, we know the results we can expect.”

Cape currently has eight leak detection dogs and five handlers. It takes approximately six months to train a dog to detect water leaks.

One of the dog handlers, Stephanie Barrett, previously worked as a police dog handler before getting involved with Cape.

She said: “From a training perspective, it is very similar because we are trying to find something, and we treat it as a game. What we’re trying to find is different, but the game is the same.

“I’m quite new to this, but it is brilliant for me. I love the environment, and trying to save it, so working in this industry with the dogs is fantastic. I get a brilliant sense of fulfilment.”