Can I train my dog to sniff out bedbugs?

That is the question.

He's smart and, like all dogs, wants to please, has a great nose and inspects everything that comes through the door anyway. So shouldn't I be able to train him to sniff for something I specifically do not want entering my house?

Here's the Fu, short for Lai Fu (it means "lucky" in Chinese and is a standard Chinese dog name. He was named by my son's crazy Chinese ex-landlady in New York, back when my son, who was then in college in Manhattan, adopted him from the ASPCA. So, yes, he's a native New Yorker.)

I've been reading up on dogs and dog training (not something that really interested me before -- I'm hardly into obedience) and have in a couple of sessions gotten Fu pretty familiar with the idea of finding things for a reward and with the scent of bedbugs. Now I have to get him to connect the two. Interesting, trying to see into a dog's view of things.

In case you're wondering how he learned what bedbugs smell like, it's by sniffing the little bottle of bugs I have on my desk. (Yes, I'm thrilled to have bedbugs in my house -- a combination of words that perhaps has never been typed before on earth. . . .) Even Carl Olson, the entomologist at the University of Arizona who got them for me -- thanks again, Carl -- was a little creeped out by them. Prepare to be horrified:

As you will see, they're double ziplocked (Ziplock turns out to be making a killing off the bedbug problem), and I only open the bottle outside, on a piece of white paper so I can see exactly what I'm doing.

Here's a good photo, from a definitive article about the critters, by Michael Potter, Ph.D., the expert on the insects. He's an urban entomologist at the University of Kentucky (who trained at the U. of Arizona, btw). The adults are, as advertised about the size and shape of an apple seed (but considerably less wholesome). They do not, however, jump or move very fast, so I'm not worried about having them around, safe inside their plastic world.

Within a few months they'll need to eat, which will involve me buying condoms (!) and a steak (!). Good times.