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Have you ever hidden your dog’s favorite toy somewhere in the house and let them loose to hunt for it? It’s called a scent game, and it’s the basis of training programs for dogs around the world.
For a special group of dogs being trained to serve a greater purpose, scent work helps them hunt down invasive plant species, find endangered animals, and help scientists learn more about specific species.
Author Isabelle Groc has spent years studying these dogs—known to the scientists and researchers who work with them as “conservation canines”—and recently published a book about her experience. Conservation Canines: How Dogs Work for the Environment, shares Groc’s observations of these inspiring dogs and their handlers, and explores the bond an owner must have with their dog to do this complex and challenging work.
Groc recently spoke with The Dog People about her book, these pet-owner teams, and the life of a conservation canine.
Rover: What inspired you to write the book?
Isabelle Groc: I’m a writer, photographer, and filmmaker, and I specialize in wildlife conservation and environmental science, and the relationships between people and the natural world. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a few years ago, I was out in the field in a wetland near Vancouver, filming a rare frog species called the Oregon spotted frog. Its Latin name is Rana pretiosa, and it means precious frog. I think it’s a fantastic name for a frog.
This frog also happens to be Canada’s most endangered amphibian, sadly. Their populations have declined dramatically. And so, biologists and conservationists are trying to protect the last patches of habitat for this frog. What makes it really difficult, though, is the frog is not very cooperative. It’s very shy. It blends in; it’s brown. It has a beautiful golden eye, but when you’re in a wetland, there’s no way you can find it. It takes hours and hours to search and survey.
To me, it’s a story of hope and resilience, because here are these dogs that nobody wants. They’re not valued. And then they found a new purpose helping in conservation work, and also helping endangered species that are also running out of options. So, it’s a win-win situation there.
So, I was there filming for a short film on this species with some wildlife biologists, and they had brought in that day a dog team, a handler with a gorgeous dog named Alli, an Australian cattle dog. The wildlife biologists wanted to test whether Alli could help them find that frog, because dogs have an incredible sense of smell and they can be trained to smell anything, including, apparently, frogs.
I didn’t know anything about conservation canines, but I followed Alli and her trainer, Heath, and to my great surprise, Alli found a frog very quickly, hiding in a little wetland tunnel. Everybody was really excited. It meant that if the dogs could be employed to find these frogs so easily, that would help conservationists and wildlife biologists to better help the populations of this endangered frog.
I became fascinated with these dogs. Over the years, I started researching, learning, reading about them, and visiting them. I realized that all over the world, dogs are now being used to help with wildlife conservation projects. So, that’s what inspired me to write this book. And I must say, Alli is still alive. She was initially with the [University of Washington] program, Conservation Canines.
Now she’s moved to a different group, Rogue Detection Teams, and she’s 17 years old. She’s retired, but still loves to work her nose.
R: Can you give me a quick history of the working dog?
IG: Dogs have been employed in working roles for thousands of years, since they’ve been domesticated as wolves becoming dogs. And humans have used dogs in a variety of settings for jobs; initially for hunting jobs, but as well to protect livestock from predator attacks, and over the years, we know that dogs have been employed in searching for missing persons, search and rescue, drugs, and explosives.
It’s only recently, in the last few decades, that dogs have been discovered as a potential asset and great partners for wildlife conservation as well, with their nose, their high energy, their ability to communicate, and their desire to cooperate with humans. That’s what these dogs are all about. They love to have a sense of purpose.
R: A lot of the working dogs in your book are former shelter dogs, correct?
IG: This is really inspiring. Many of them were initially shelter dogs. They were dogs that have high energy, are often ball-obsessed, and have an insatiable play drive. These animals don’t make good pets, typically, because there are very few people that are able to cope with that kind of character in a home situation. Very sadly, these dogs are surrendered, and they end up in shelters, where nobody wants them.
These conservation groups found these dogs in shelters, and they realized, well, these dogs have exactly the qualities that the conservation groups need to work in the field. These dogs will work for hours and hours, and will look for whatever scent they trained on for the reward of the ball. That makes them ideal conservation canines.
To me, it’s a story of hope and resilience, because here are these dogs that nobody wants. They’re not valued. And then they found a new purpose helping in conservation work, and also helping endangered species that are also running out of options. So, it’s a win-win situation there.
R: My dog is completely obsessed with fetch. I feel like he could probably be really good at this.
IG: Yeah, it’s interesting. One of the questions that conservation canine groups get from members of the public is that—can my dog become a conservation canine? Can I contribute? And there are a few programs now, more citizen science-oriented, that actually train pet dog owners with their dogs that are ball-obsessed, that have physical fitness, a high play drive, to help in those projects, particularly with invasive species to find. So, you never know.
But not everybody can do it. It still takes a level of skill, and specific criteria. While all dogs obviously can smell and do nose-work, not all dogs can become a conservation canine, and not all dog owners can handle it. Doing that kind of conservation work is very hard. It requires being in the field often in tough conditions, with a lot of vegetation, and working for hours and hours in those conditions is sometimes difficult to handle.
All over the world, dogs are being used to help with wildlife conservation projects.
R: What are some of the coolest jobs the dogs in your book have?
IG: What fascinates me is the variety of the projects they work on. They’re very versatile. They can be trained to detect almost anything. One of the fascinating projects I got to follow and document was conservation dogs that were employed on boats in Washington state to detect southern resident killer whales’ scat.
Can you imagine a dog on a boat? The dog can’t actually run. It has to stay on the boat, and it has to use its sense of smell to locate the orca scat. The scat is floating. You can’t really see it. So, that’s where, also, you find that teamwork is so important, because the handler is on the boat with the dog, there’s someone else driving the boat, and they have to take the cue from the dog. You know, the dog is looking this way or that way to know where to go and retrieve that scat sample.
I think it’s a cool job as well because it’s about the impact and the difference they make. This project about finding killer whale scat in the ocean has really helped researchers learn a great deal about orcas. They’re a very endangered population. They’re southern resident killer whales; they live in Washington state. There’s less than 80 of them left. It’s a very small population, and sadly, they’ve been declining. But thanks to being able to collect these scat samples, the researchers have been able to uncover why this population was declining. They’ve been able to discover that they were nutritionally stressed, they don’t have any food to eat. And because they don’t have enough food to eat, they’re not able to reproduce properly. So, all of that information because of the dogs.
R: What is the bond like between a working dog and their owner?
IG: The bond is everything. It’s a very important component of a successful team in conservation work, because while the dog is using their nose in the field, it’s not like the owner is just standing there and telling their dog, okay, just go ahead and find this. Especially when working in large landscapes, the dog might be excellent at using his nose, but they might need some help.
Sometimes there are obstacles that obscure the smell, or there are environmental conditions and the dog-handler has to be able to read the wind direction, and all these other factors. So, they need to be there and support their dog to be successful in the field. It’s really teamwork, and that’s why all the conservation groups I’ve spoken with who have trained scent-detection dogs say, well, the dogs get it really quickly. But the handlers, it takes a long time to train a dog-handler to be an independent thinker as well, to help the dog solve a puzzle.
And it can be hard, because the dog can smell, but we can’t really see that. So, we have to learn to speak the dog’s language, to communicate with them in a way that makes sense to them. The other scenario that I find is that the dogs are very sensitive to the mood of their handler. So, as a handler, if you go in the field working with your dog on a conservation project and you’re feeling worried about something or you’re not in a great mood, the dog will pick that up immediately and won’t be as effective.
R: Do you find that certain breeds of dogs are better at certain jobs?
IG: Any breed can do it. The book also talks about livestock-guarding dogs. These are the ancient breeds that help protect livestock against predator attacks. I included those in my book because I really wanted to consider the role of dogs in helping people coexist with predators that are returning to the landscapes, whether they’re bears or wolves.
We know that there are conflicts, often, when wolves encounter livestock on the landscape, when they’re reintroduced or introduced in a landscape. And so, for these particular jobs, the breeds are quite specialized. For example, Anatolian Shepherd dogs are large, impressive dogs that have the qualities required to scare away a wolf or bear. They have loud voices, big-teeth barks.
I think it’s a cool job as well because it’s about the impact and the difference they make. [It] has really helped researchers learn a great deal about orcas. They’re a very endangered population. But thanks to being able to collect these scat samples, the researchers have been able to uncover why this population was declining.
For detection dogs, it’s more of the qualities of the dogs themselves, the fact that they’re ball-obsessed, high energy, and have the physical fitness to do this. Of course, large dogs, like a Great Dane for example, might not be suitable for navigating small spaces in wet, thick vegetation or old-growth forests. That’s what you have to consider. Where do you put those dogs, is it a fieldwork situation where not all breeds are appropriate?
There are certain breeds that seem to be more used, but most dogs can do this.
R: Is the basic training pretty much the same for every job, or does it vary based on the specialty?
IG: It’s pretty much always the same thing. The dogs work for a reward, like a toy, a ball. It’s a matter of introducing the target odor to the dog, and the dog learns to recognize that smell and associate it with a ball reward. The dogs learn that pretty quickly.
That seems to be one of the themes I hear from these groups—that the dogs get it quick, but the handlers sometimes need the extra training.
R: If someone wants their dog to become a conservation canine, what is the best course of action for them?
IG: The first step, if an owner is interested in having their dog do nose-work for conservation, is to take a class and see how the dog feels about it. Also see if you as a person enjoy doing that activity with your dog.
Your dog will also need to have sufficient physical strength. They will need high energy.
Once you’ve done the nose-work courses and you think your dog could qualify, you can contact some of the conservation groups that specialize in working with dogs. Then say, look, I think my dog could do this, do you have a citizen science project? I’ll be honest, very few dogs make the cut. It’s a big step to go from engaging in fun activities and scent games with your dog to actually going in the field and having them work as a conservation canine.
When dogs work with endangered species in the field, you don’t want them to harass or chase the wildlife. It’s very important that the dogs are well-trained to behave around sensitive ecosystems or wildlife species. So, often, a great start for people who want to contribute to citizen science with their own dogs is detecting invasive plants, because the dogs can make a difference in finding those plants. Then they can remove it, and that helps the environment.
Often, a great start for people who want to contribute to citizen science with their own dogs is detecting invasive plants, because the dogs can make a difference in finding those plants. Then they can remove it, and that helps the environment.
So, connect with your local conservation group. That would be the way to go. There’s one organization in Hawaii, called Conservation Dogs of Hawaii. They run a citizen science program for pet dog owners that want to do more with their dogs once they’ve done the basic scent-detection classes.
They’re being recruited to help find a plant called devil weed, which is a very toxic plant. They help remove those plants. It helps with projects when there’s not sufficient funding for the work—here come those volunteers with their dogs, and they can help make a difference. This is just one example of a group making that bridge between citizen science, nose-work, and conservation work.
R: So, tell me about your cat.
IG: My cat is a rescue, and since I’ve worked on this project with dogs, I’ve also rediscovered my cat’s nose. Doing this work, researching this book, has made me pay more attention to, wow, who’s the animal I’m living with? What’s their world about?
And scent is definitely important. That’s what I think is fascinating for anyone who looks at conservation canines or what those working dogs do. It helps us revisit our own animals that share our lives, and make the effort to pay attention to the world as they see it. So now, I look at my cat in that way.
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