Rocco: Grant’s whisky’s official sniffer dog

Let’s talk dream jobs.

Fresh from World Whisky Day, Grant’s Whisky just filled a new enviable position. Qualification? A nose for quality. The lucky guy, or in this case pooch, Rocco. He is now Grant’s Whisky’s official sniffer dog. His boss, Mr Woof (yes his real name), toasted to Rocco’s nose for quality.

Whisky lovers, myself included pride themselves on their nose for a dram, but we have nothing on the one-year-old Cocker Spaniel.

His job is to sniff out the quality of the casks. When he is done checking out the quality of the wood, he noses around the rest of the distillery to make sure that everything is going to plan, picking up the scent of anything that’s not quite right as the whisky matures.

Rocco went through six months of intensive training. To make sure he feels right at home and is on call night and day, Grant’s craftsmen have built him a kennel right outside the distillery. He is cared for, prepared for his daily work schedule, fed and exercised.

Rocco’s new gig got me thinking about the job market in Kenya - the work environment, the lack of jobs for most Pulsers, the never ending bills from the ever present tax man, the uncertainty of where your next meal will come from...

Go to school they say, study they say, equip yourself with the necessary skills to prepare you for the job market - but where are these jobs?  From where I am sitting, Rocco’s new lease on life is looking a whole lot better than most Pulsers. 

And that’s no OK!