Zeta sniffed the several T-shirts spread out before her on the floor until she detected a chemical odor on one and alerted her handler by sitting in front of it.
“Show me,” commanded David Zehring, an investigator with Gilbert Fire and Rescue.
The black English Labrador retriever then pointed with her nose to the shirt’s logo, where earlier Zhering had put a tiny drop of accelerant.
“Good girl,” Zehring said as he reached into the food pouch strapped around his waist and rewarded Zeta with dog kibbles.
For an hour, Zehring trained the 19-month-old arson dog to detect six different classifications of ignitable liquids such as gasoline, lighter fluid, diesel, paint thinner and charcoal fluid along with the different brands of those accelerants.
Zeta is a rare dog.