Wolverhampton business has a nose for finding dry rot

Mark Doggett has set up Enviro-Dogs, a firm which aims to spare homeowners the costly task of ripping up floorboards or smashing down walls to locate the dreaded wood-rotting funghi.

His dogs – which include two-and-a-half-year-old border collie Meg and Jess, a 15-month-old English springer spaniel – are trained to military standard to use their noses to find signs of dry rot which humans can't detect.

Based in Penn, the former construction worker spent time working with police dogs, army dogs and fire investigation dogs to hone his teaching techniques.

They are trained from an early age and Mr Doggett said his dog team can save homeowners thousands of pounds by detecting dry rot in a property early.

So far his crew have been deployed at some well known landmarks, including a recent trawl through Bath Abbey as part of a preventative maintenance survey and a sniff around Devizes Castle in Wiltshire.

Larger sites, such as the Abbey, can take a half day to search, whereas a small house could take just 10 minutes to check.

When dry rot is detected the dogs will stop, stare, and point at the scent with their nose. Because of the buildings they work in they do not want dogs who bark.

Mr Doggett added: "They will offer different behaviours, bark and do different things, so we wait until they offer the right behaviour.

The dogs are trained with the help of a ball.

Mr Doggett added: "The dogs know when they have done the right thing, they get the ball. After five to 10 times they do realise 'the way I get my ball as a reward for this is by looking at it'."

It may be a dog's life but it's not all hard work for the Enviro-Dogs.

Mr Doggett said the dogs behave like family pets at home and only spring into action when he puts on his work clothes and gets out his harnesses.