Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation are pawsitively thrilled to announce two English Springer spaniels are on the rookie list to join the C. Difficile Canine Scent Detection Program.
The pups will be mentored by Canada’s top C. difficile detection dogs, Angus and Dodger, to sniff out a superbug that attacks people with compromised immune systems.
The pups are three months old and hail from Trenton, Utah. Rockey’s Travelling Girl Gone Abroad, aka Traveller, is a spunky black and white female named in honour of Ron Gaunt, a former police K9 handler in the U.S. and a leader in the sport of nose work.
Ron was known as the “Travelling Man.” Fittingly, young Traveller has logged her first road trip to Vancouver. Traveller’s brother is just as cute, loves sticks and cuddles, but needs a name.
They will be training under Angus and Dodger, the stars of the C. Difficile Canine Scent Detection Program. Angus and Dodger are trained and certified to detect Clostridium difficile or C. difficile, a superbug that attacks people whose immune systems are weakened by antibiotics.
They are part of an infection prevention team that includes an Infection Control Practitioner and housekeeping staff, all dedicated to reducing environmental contamination from C. difficile.
Since 2016, the canine scent detection teams at VCH have searched hundreds of hospital areas for C. difficile. They’ve also visited 30 Canadian health care facilities to share their infection prevention expertise.
Meanwhile, VCH is also inviting the community to choose a name for one of the new recruits.
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