Fire dog Barney is hot stuff (From Bucks Free Press)

Fire dog Barney is hot stuff

10:07am Thursday 22nd November 2007 in News By Lucy Clapham

A CRIME fighting canine has sniffed his way through to a final round in the world's largest dog show.

Barney the fire investigation dog, and his handler Kerry Burns, will be competing in the Kennel Club Special Pre-beginner stakes at Crufts, after he wowed judges with his obedience skills.

But Kerry did not even realise they were in the running for the internationally-renowned competition when they entered a class at a show last year.

Kerry, from Great Missenden, said: "Crufts was a little bit of a surprise to us. We entered an obedience show as a pet dog before he got the job as a fire investigator. We entered a special class and we won, and that was the heats for the Kennel Club Special Pre-beginner stakes.

"The semi-final was held at Discover Dogs (a Kennel Club event) last Saturday and Barney earned second place and the top five go through to Crufts."

Barney, a five-and-a-half-year-old black and white collie, has been working for Bucks Fire and Rescue for a year. He and Kerry are called upon when the brigade need help investigating fires they think could have been started deliberately.

He has been trained to sniff out anything an arsonist might use such as petrol or lighter fluid and to track down anything left at the scene, such as a petrol can, so police can fingerprint it.

Together they travel to the scene of a blaze in a specially-adapted car. But before going into investigate, Barney dons a special pair of protective boots and a reflective harness and line, which tells him he is working, helps Kerry keep an eye on him and makes sure he doesn't wander into any dangerous areas.

But now his work off the field will be put to the test during next March's competition, which is being held in Birmingham.

"He certainly did very well," Kerry said, "He was very excited and he did us proud. He's done extremely well. He was originally a rescue dog and no one, I don't think, would have guessed then that he would have gone on to do such great things."

Barney lives at home with Kerry, her partner Bryan Tomes, a firefighter at Great Missenden fire station, and their three other pet dogs.