Sheldon has a nose for solving arson cases, and he proved it on his very first day at work.
The dog — part golden retriever, part black Labrador — was trained by State Farm Insurance to use his incredibly sensitive snout to detect fuels and other accelerants, when authorities suspect that a fire was set on purpose and need evidence to support their case.
Sheldon’s handler, Saginaw fire battalion chief John Tadlock, remembers the eager pooch’s very first case, in the spring of 2018. The human-canine duo, having just completed a month of training on the east coast, had returned to Tarrant County and was called to a car dealership where several vehicles had mysteriously burned three days earlier. Local and federal authorities had video of a suspect leaving the dealership minutes before the fire, but didn’t have evidence of what caused the fire itself. They were baffled.