Politics & Government

Video: County Dog Has a Nose for Fruit, Plants

The Sacramento County detector dog inspects shipping facilities for unmarked fruit and plants.

Jennifer Berger gets really excited when she finds unmarked oranges at work.

More specifically, when Roxie, Sacramento County’s agricultural detector dog, finds them. The black Labrador, guided by Berger, spends every day looking for fruit, plants and live animals in DHL, FedEx and post office sorting facilities.

Roxie is one of just 13 such dogs in the state, trying to keep pests from other parts of the country out of the local agriculture system.

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“Most of them are just common mistakes … people don’t know the regulations that agricultural products have,” Berger said, noting that local agriculture departments should inspect fruits and plants for invasive pests before they’re shipped.

Roxie first reported to work at the Rosemont office of the in January, replacing retiring detector dog Tassie. But unlike a police K-9, Roxie doesn’t come home with her handler after work.

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Roxie is trained to alert to the odors of fruits, plants and live animals–things that are prevalent in normal homes. To keep from getting used to the smells, Roxie spends her off time at in Elk Grove.

When Roxie does find a package with fruit or plants in it, she’s trained to scratch the box. Some common finds include backyard fruits and Hawaiian leis around graduation time.

“I feel like I’ve ruined so many graduations,” Berger said.

She’s also seen unmarked packages containing boa constrictors, live chickens, snapping turtles, car parts paired with curry and more.

“It’s all the same to the dog,” she said. Berger pulls up a digital photo of a box of fruit and a Ryobi drill and power sander.

Despite her sharp senses, Roxie wasn’t bred to be a detector dog. She was recruited from a Florida animal shelter, then sent to be trained in Newnan, Ga.

“These dogs have a great life,” Berger said, adding that she gets satisfaction from “finding things that could potentially save the state a lot of money.”

Watch the above video to see a demonstration of Roxie finding fruit in an unmarked box (the flower boxes in the video are empty). Visit the Rosemont Patch Facebook page to watch the video in HD.


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