Missing Link: Tracker dog Kalle – Hunter of the smouldering cable

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Cable fires are dangerous: they occur quite frequently and are particularly difficult to locate. Of course, you can search for them with a cable test van. Bernd Haase, managing owner of "Elektrotechnik Haase GmbH" in Bargeshagen near Rostock, has one of these. But its use is not always, well, sensible: "We have our cable test van for outdoors, but we would plug a building in with 20,000 volts," he says. For indoors, he has Kalle. Kalle is one and a half years old, has four legs, two large pointed ears and, above all, a black, moist and very sensitive nose. "Kalle" is a dog, and Haase trains him to sniff out cable fires.

"Missing Link"

What's missing: In the fast-paced world of technology, we often don't have time to sort through all the news and background information. At the weekend, we want to take this time to follow the side paths away from the current affairs, try out other perspectives and make nuances audible.

• All our the "Missing Links"

Treacherous cable fires

Cable fires are a major problem. The technical experts at the Institute for Loss Prevention and Loss Research (IFS), an institution of the public insurers, carried out around 2,000 fire investigations last year. Not all fires were investigated because the respective clients determined the criteria according to which the IFS was called in. According to the IFS website, it mainly dealt with fires that "caused considerable damage in and to buildings".

The investigation results for these fires were collected in the IFS damage database and statistically evaluated. These statistics are therefore not representative of the overall incidence of damage. However, in these fire cause statistics for the particularly damaging building fires investigated, 28 percent were caused by electricity. In the overall statistics for the years 2002 to 2022, the figure is as high as 32 percent. How many of these are cable fires is not specifically recorded, but they are likely to account for a significant proportion.

The tricky thing about a cable fire is that it is difficult to find the source of the fire. Yes, it smells, even as a person you can smell a cable fire - but you often can't locate it. If the socket is smoking, the case is pretty clear. But often enough, something is quietly simmering somewhere behind a wall, stinking away, and you can't find out exactly where the smell is coming from. "Two people from a housing association came to see me the other day. They told me about a house that smelled very bad. But they searched for a whole day with two men until they finally found the spot," reports Bernd Haase.

In such cases, Kalle will come into play in the future. The dog is still in training. To practice, Bernd Haase takes Kalle into a room where he has hidden an odor sample from a cable fire. He says "cable", and on this command the dog dashes off, sniffs here and sniffs there, you can hear his loud breathing, and finally, he has found the "source of the fire". Bernd Haase activates a small clicker. The sound tells Kalle that he has completed his task well. Haase gives him a toy as a reward.

Kalle is a bit special

Kalle is not only good at smelling - he is also "only" about the size of a German shepherd, but very fast and agile. In other words, he can get (almost) everywhere, unlike the cable test van, which is big and you can't get everywhere with it. Not to mention the potential danger mentioned at the beginning. Another advantage. A dog like this is really practical. Well - once the owner has found out how to handle him.

Kalle is a Malinois. This is the short-haired version of the Belgian Shepherd. Many people also say Mali or Malli. "Or Maligator", laughs Bernd Haase. The breed is a bit special. The Haases had seen such a dog at a friend's home and wanted a dog from this kennel. "But after a week we thought it was a totally crazy dog. For example, we wanted to go for a walk and as soon as we opened the door, he was off with our shoes. All sorts of things."

Fortunately, his family had had dogs before and knew what to do. Malinois are working dogs. They want to work. Humans have to keep them busy. This breed is used worldwide in police and military service, they are guard and watchdogs, working dogs, trackers. "I called the police and they arranged for me to talk to the dog handler."

The police are familiar with this. Many dogs work there: mantrailers and also sniffer dogs that are trained for specific objects: Narcotics, for example, money - or data carriers. Many police forces now do this. How does it work? The press spokesman for the Hamburg police: "As police, we have no knowledge of the exact odor component of a data carrier that the dog reacts to and can detect with targeted training and repetition. As the police, we can't say whether it's a specific alloy, a mineral, a chemical compound or everything together in a data carrier." Either way, the main thing is that it works.