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Weird World: Eating dog treats, sniffing armpits and watching paint dry… all in a day’s work for some

By Oliver Rhodes

If you’re having one of those days where you feel like the office is the last place you want to be, please spare a thought for the woman who spends her days sniffing armpits for a living.

Hers is just one of the weirdest jobs in the world – others include the man who eats dog treats and another who literally watches paint dry.

Australian Mark Gooley chomps into doggie dental sticks, chewy bones and liver mixture as owner of dog and horse food company Huds and Toke.

The Geelong, Victoria resident tests the products to ensure the canines like their food as much as the Lady and the Tramp enjoyed their pasta and meatballs.

“If you wouldn’t put it in your mouth don’t you dare expect your dog to eat it,” Mr Gooley told News Limited Network.

“The dog might not be able to tell me ‘that tastes terrible’ so I have to taste it.

“If it doesn’t pass the test then it’s not going off the factory floor to the animals.”

Peta Jones is employed as an ‘underarm odour assessor’ by consumer goods company Unilever and she does not think her job is the pits.

She works on research and development for brands such as Dove and Lynx and believes sniffing armpits is no sweat.

“The first time I took part in sniffing it did seem a bit strange, however within the first week of the job it was fine,” she said.

“It soon felt normal as there are a team of us doing the job and I could see the results we were producing were useful.”

Watching paint dry appears mind-numbing for most people, but Taubmans technical manager Paul McCorkell is tarred with a different brush.

The 39-year-old from Sydney evaluates painted walls and panels at the company’s Villawood factory during regular intervals.

“We need to make sure the customer is happy that it dries down to a uniform appearance,” Mr McCorkell said.

“I find when I walk into a building while people might be admiring the architecture, I’m looking at the paint work and how well it has been applied or not.”

Picture courtesy of tohu, via Flickr, with thanks.

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