Hounds Honing in on Doggone Bed Bugs All Over NYC

It's almost exactly one year since we first noted the use of dogs to detect bed bugs; today the Times takes a closer look at the growing cottage industry, highlighting the four-month old company Bedbug Finders. The owners use two dogs, Ruby and Pasha; Ruby is a beagle and Pasha is a basenji and "maybe part terrier," according to co-owner Donald Frey. Because of the city's worsening bedbug epidemic—which a City Council committee met to discuss this week—Ruby and Pasha have been very busy sniffing out bed bugs in hotels, apartment houses and schools, where they found the bloodsuckers in gym bags and in children’s books. Co-owner Michael Morin says the epidemic affects all walks of life, and clients have included buildings occupied by famous TV "personalities," and "a big, big university on the West Side—I think you can put two and two together." To keep the dogs sharp, Morin trains them by hiding vials with live bedbugs in them throughout his house. He tells the Times, "My wife doesn’t like it."