Had a girlfriend once that lived on a stetch of very urban creek, that the burglary population found quite useful.

Her dad had a pretty useless bird dog that he sent ou to be "trained."

shortly therafter, they came back fro about a one week trip, and found a guy in their back yard with his bloody hand clamped in said bird dog's mouth, pleading for them to call the cops. He'd been there about 3 day's IIRC. The dog turned out to have talents that did not show themselves as a bird finder.