Dogs’ noses can save lives.

For over 300 years, many search and rescue operations have tapped the potential of a dog’s olfactory senses to track lost items or people.

A dog’s sense of smell is around 10,000 to 100,000 times better than that of a human being.

This is why dogs have become integral to our forces’ major search operations.

Their sense of smell never failed, and they could easily detect the presence of a person or track their scent.

All it takes is one sniff, and they already know if they found who they’re looking for or if there’s someone in the vicinity.

They could detect from miles away more than a human could.

Banjo is one of those dogs with the best sense of smell.

He was only a 9-month-old puppy when his dad, Kerry, taught him.

More than a dog’s sense of smell, he was trained to sniff through trails and other suspicious places.

But this German wire-haired pointer never thought that all that training would save another dog’s life.

They were on a cross-country ski trip in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, when Banjo started acting up.

“Banjo has a distinct tail whip and body movement when he’s around fresh animal scent, so when I saw him run for the trees, I knew something was there,” Kerry told The Dodo.

This gave Kerry the idea that something must be hiding behind them.

He skied a little further and found a Golden Retriever there looking lost, cold, and hungry.

He knew he had to save the poor Goldie but it didn’t trust him, only Banjo. So, he called animal control to help him contact his owners.

When they finally did, Kerry got the owners on the phone and put them on speaker.

It turned out that the dog named Louie had been missing for days.

When they called, his fur parents, Julia and Brett Neufeldt, were on a search party.

It was an emotional scene when they finally got there.

Julia said a friend had taken Louie for a walk in the Furdale Dog Park when she noticed he wasn’t in sight for twenty minutes already.

That was before the snowstorm. Kerry found Louie days after, almost 55 yards away from the path of the dog park.

The Neufeldts were relieved to bring their dog back home that day.

They brought him to the vet to assess his condition, especially since he was out in the cold for days.

Unfortunately, though, he needed some surgery on both knees because he injured his left and his right knee carried all his weight which also resulted in some damage on that part.

Kerry was happy that he and Banjo were able to help Louie reunite with his family.

“There were lots of friends of Louie and some laughs and happy tears from his owner — a waggy butt and a very excited and hungry Louie! It was very sweet. They had some food for him back at the vehicle, and I handed some extra treats to Julia along with a beer to celebrate,” he said.

Indeed, it was something worth celebrating. Learn more about Banjo’s heroism in finding Louie in the video below!

Source: Global Saskatoon Facebook Page, Banjo_GWP Instagram, Julia Neufeldt Facebook Page, The Dodo