Archie is Britain’s first mouse detection dog

A Welsh company is giving cats a run for their money when it comes to mouse control. Felines have traditionally ruled the roost when it comes to tackling mice problems, but now detection dog company Wagtail UK could give canines the upper hand.

Wagtail, based near Holywell, has trained Britain’s first mouse detection dog – Archie, a three-year-old springer spaniel – for the pest control section of UK property management giant Mitie. Wagtail head of training Louise Wilson said: “Mice are not that hard to find.



“The trick is to find out how and where they are getting into a building, whether it’s an office, a warehouse, a supermarket or a cinema. That was the challenge for us and it has taken more than a year to train Archie, compared to the three months it normally takes to train a dog to detect something.

“It has been really complicated and very intensive, but now Archie is trained and is ready to go out in the field with his handler.” That handler is Alan Johnson, who reckons he’s now the only person using a mouse detection dog in the UK: “I’m pretty unique in that respect,” he said.