Gyeongbokgung Palace is one of South Korea’s most valued and prominent heritage sites: unfortunately, like many other heritage sites all around the world, it is in danger of being degraded by contrary elements and pests such as termites. South Korea’s authorities have come up with an interesting tool for their termite control for the palace, though: English springer spaniels from the West Midlands have been imported to help with the termite inspection of the palace.
The dogs have been specially trained to help with termite inspection. Incorporated as part of the Gyeongbokgung Palace’s termite control program, they were originally trained to detect illegal substances in England as well as explosives. The versatile animals have taken quickly and easily to their termite detection training, though, and are now highly valued by South Korean authorities for their abilities.
The dogs are actually quite widely traveled. They began their work for the Samsung Detector Dog Centre’s client, the Cultural Heritage Administration, around 2007, and are actually several sites regularly. One dog can make as many as 12 trips each year around South Korea, sniffing out the pests where possible and helping termite control workers take action before it is too late.
The problem with cultural heritage sites, of course, is that termite inspections can be a little trickier to work out with them. It is usually not feasible to simply drill around the property to find out where the termites are, nor is it sensible to wait for the termites to be visually detectable. Visually detectable termites indicate woodwork that has been damaged beyond repair, so it would be too late for heritage sites to be saved and given termite treatment by then.
Dogs are excellent solutions for the problem. Canines have powerful olfactory systems that permit them to sniff out termites even through walls. They have actually been used for this function for some time already by other countries. The rate of accuracy is impressive: the spaniels are even capable of detecting a pair of termites in a column. This helps termite control officials target their work and become more effective at what they do.
The spaniels are motivated by an interestingly typical reward: they get to play a game of catch with a ball. Trainers throw a ball for them to play with when they find termites, so they quickly learn to look forward to each detection. As for the termite control authorities, they get the benefit of being saved a great deal of the work. Because of the success of the programme, authorities are already looking into finding more dogs suitable for the work and training them to do the same work as the current group of English springer spaniels.
