Agricultural Detector Dog Honored After 7-years of Service

By the County of Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors honored agricultural detector dog “Doomis” with an honorary retirement resolution on Tuesday, May 9, 2023 after seven and a half years of dedicated service to the County.

Doomis was joined by his canine handler, Santa Barbara County Agriculture Biologist Christine Tyler, along with several other Agricultural Commissioner staff members.

Doomis started as a stray dog in Georgia, eventually finding his way into an animal shelter, where he was selected by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for admittance into the National Detector Dog Training Center. 

Dogs and handlers must complete an intense eight-week training program at the USDA National Detector Dog Training Center in Newnan, Georgia prior to beginning inspections in California. Dogs are initially trained to detect the following five target odors in parcels: citrus, apple, mango, guava and stone fruit. Once the teams have mastered the five target odors, handlers work with their partners to increase their repertoire to plants, soil, insects, diseases, etc.

Over the years, Doomis alerted on over 43,000 marked and unmarked agricultural parcels, with an accuracy rate of over 94% which resulted on interceptions of 550 actionable pests over his career.   Highlights include: Caribbean fruit flies; reniform nematode; pathogens which had never been detected in California; and additional unwanted plant pests including insects; diseases; and other harmful organisms that may pose a threat to agriculture.

There are about a dozen California Dog Teams active in the state, with a goal of enhancing inspection and surveillance activities related to plant products entering the State of California via parcel delivery facilities and airfreight terminals, to help protect the food supply, the environment, and plant health. It is a joint program between California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and county Ag Commissioners.

The program will continue in Santa Barbara County.  Tyler recently returned from the National Detector Dog Training Center with the County’s new agricultural detector dog, Berty, a 19-month old Labrador.

As for Doomis, he will spend his days in retirement enjoying an endless supply of dog treats, tennis balls, squeaky toys and belly rubs.