Hunter’s Florida Training Academy Update – Bedbugs Don’t Have a Chance with THIS Sniffer

There is something about this Florida K-9 Training Academy that brings out the very best in me. Everything has been going great ever since I’ve been down here. It is obvious that having trained here several years ago to get my Termite Detective Certificate put me a big dogleg up on all the other pups in my Bedbug Detective class. I maxed out my entire classroom testing with a final grade average of 5.0. The 1 bonus point I received was for an essay I wrote on “The Life Stages of a Bedbug”. I wrote it as an extra credit assignment. Only one other dog (Little “B”) in my class accepted the challenge with me. The Academy has asked me for permission to use it as a handout for all future Bedbug Training classes. From now on “The Hunter Lupini Bedbug Essay” will be given to all new K-9 Bedbug Detective recruits. That’s pretty cool huh?

We are still running daily field exercises were bedbugs in various life cycle stages are hidden in obvious and not so obvious places in household settings. These trainers can be tricky sometimes. They have found synthetic scents (clones) that are pretty close to that of the musty smell I have described of the bedbug stages. Each stage, from egg, larva, and nymph to adult has a slightly different musty smell. When the trainers have swapped out the real scents to phony scents, they have tricked many of my classmates; but not Hunter the “Super Sniffer”. I have only missed 1 challenge “sniff out” and that was before I knew they had developed a very close clone scent to the bedbug. They got me that one time; however in 12 field trials since then, I am 100% accurate in denoting the real bedbug scent from the clone and finding the bedbugs wherever they hide them. No other candidate is even close to those numbers. OK, I’ll admit it, I’m the best of the rest in this class; however, these tough training exercises will make all of the K-9s in this class highly skilled Bedbug Detectives. When these pups get back to their respective families and start working for their pest control companies, they are going to do a great job sniffing out bedbugs.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have been keeping an eye on a couple of young pups that have exceptional physical and mental “Hunter” type skills. One is “Buster”, I call him Little “B”; he’s from North Carolina.  He wants to be just like me; a Termite Detective and a Bedbug Detective, as well as, write a weekly “dog-blog” and monthly newsletter for his company. Those are aggressive goals but he seems to be determined to reach his goals. I admire him for that. He has been by my side since my first day of training. Little “B” is constantly asking me questions; how can I possibly refuse a pup with a mug like that! One of these days I’m going to have him up for a visit to Loyal Termite and Pest Control and have him go out in the field with me and Daddy Nick. That’s with Daddy Nick’s permission, of course. Little “B” gave me a big “bow-wow” when I suggested that!

Well, that’s it for now. Stay tuned and next week I’ll give you the skinny of what is happening with me on my Florida Adventure; attending the K-9 Florida Academy to become a K-9 Bedbug Detective in addition to my current status as a K-9 Termite Detective.

You know what I’m going to be barking when I get back to Richmond don’t you? I bet you do;

When it comes to termite and pest control; Hunter says,
“If you got ‘em, we’ll get ‘em!”