A 1982 experiment with a yellow Labrador retriever had established that a canine could be conditioned to respond to accelerant odor with greater sensitivity than current detection devices and could differentiate between accelerants and similar chemical gases normally present at a fire scene. A black female Labrador retriever, "Mattie," began training May 1, 1986 for field work. As her training expanded, her ability to distinguish different odors improved, and from June 1, 1987 to May 30, 1988, she was called to 61 fire scenes, mostly of suspicious origin. To date she has worked over 315 investigations in other states as well as in Connecticut. In one case, she picked an 18-year-old suspect out of a crowd of spectators watching a 4-alarm fire. Mattie's success led to another canine, "Solo," being employed. These canines produce a 95-percent success rate on samples taken from fire scenes and use fewer samples than the previous method which produced a 40-percent success rate. The use of canines can result in fewer lab submittals and minimal false-positive findings.