Partnering with Rogue Canines for Conservation

By Denice Rackley

Today’s tech filled world holds many answers, but dogs lead us down paths to answers technology can’t locate. Dogs are able to unveil an entirely new world, improving our understanding and management of the wild places, and even the not so wild places near our backyards.

As long as man and dogs have lived near each other, we have leaned on their unique abilities. Their natural attributes come in handy in a myriad of situations. We are just now beginning to scratch the surface of a dog’s ability.

Hunting partners and sentries were the first jobs to be filled by canines. Raising livestock with the help of herding dogs, search and rescue teammates, and even relying on a guide dog for independence, a dog’s ability to navigate terrain, their keen senses, and unwavering loyalty enables us to accomplish far more together than we could ever hope to accomplish alone. When we invest in relationships with dogs and work to understand them, they devote themselves to working beside us.

Our canine partners’ contributions are only limited by our ability to dream big and communicate with them. In the past two decades, canines have been pushed the boundaries of what we thought possible, turns out canines are perfect partners in conservation.

Partnering In Conservation

A vast array of plants and animals, from whales to wooly caterpillars, have benefited from the work of handler-dog conservation partners.

Conservation work requires wildlife biologists to spend countless hours moving through less than ideal landscapes. Rugged terrain, steep, rocky mountainsides, dense thickets full of insects and thorns, and swampy bogs make gathering bits of data difficult on the best of days.

Nevertheless, trained biologists may find paw prints, a bit of hair, scat (feces), or remains of prey; each piece of information proves a clue. These hard-won pieces of information indicate the presence of wildlife and provide information on their habits and health.

With the limitations of human senses, it can take hours or days to locate each sample. During the search, humans will pass by multiple pieces of evidence beyond our ability to detect. Live trapping animals, taking samples and measurements provide invaluable information, but trapping is stressful and disrupts the animals’ day when simply surviving is a full-time job.

Is there a way we can enter remote wild places, without disruption? Could we locate and collect significant amounts of data that gives an overall picture of the particular ecosystems along with the specific plants and animals in that ecosystem to understand what is happening there? You bet.

Dogs become Willing Partners

Where our observation skills are limited, the dogs excel.

Partnering wildlife biologists with a dog trained to scent has proven immensely successful. The volume of data that a dog can locate significantly overshadows what people alone can accomplish. 

The utilization of conservation detection dogs in the U.S. started in the late 1990’s after Sargent Barbara Davenport, Master Trainer for the Washing Department of Corrections, was approached by various biologists to train handlers and dogs to search for specific odors in the wild.

A dog’s specialized ability to locate and sort out scent particles can be applied to preserving and protecting species and habitat, says Jennifer Hartman of Rogue Detection Teams. It’s all in the nose.

The Nose Knows

Imagine being tasked to find fox scat in the Sierra Nevada Mountains or grizzly bear scat in Yellowstone. To say your days would be long and tedious would be an understatement. Dogs, on the other hand, are built for that type of work.

Dogs’ noses are incredibly specialized, enabling them to locate and isolate specific scent particles from great distances. Their brains are hard-wired to analyze scents. Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors compared to our 6 million. The part of the brain devoted to scent is 40 times larger in dogs than in humans. For example, when cooking stew, we recognize the collection of ingredients as strew. But dogs discern individual ingredients – beef, carrots, potatoes, green beans, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

Dogs assist wildlife biologists by using their incredible sense of smell to find a particular animal species, an individual animal, feces from a particular species, a plant, and even toxins much quicker and with more precision than we humans can, even with advanced technology.

Poop is the holy grail of wildlife research, holding an amazing amount of valuable information. Scat can identify pathogens, parasites, and even the sex of the animal. Gathering hard-to-find signs of animals and analyzing feces enables biologists to understand animals’ home range, movement, diet, and general health.

Wildlife biologists are not only searching for information on a particular species; they are looking for clues that tie each individual to a place and community.

Ecosystems Depend on Biodiversity and Balance

We are continually learning about biodiversity, and the vital role diversity plays in the health of ecosystems and our entire planet. The more we understand nature’s delicate balance, we realize that the decline or death of one species, plant or animal, has cascading impacts on every other species.

All the pieces of data gathered together compose a larger picture and provides valuable information to preserve and protect the wilderness and the animals and plants that coexist in these places.

Dogs in Conservation

Heath Smith and Jennifer Hartman, both wildlife biologists, began their careers with the University of Washington, but they didn’t start with a Conservation Canine beside them. Both had worked in the field but were paired with a dog for a project. Self-professed cat-people, they have been pulled down a different path than they could have imagined. Now there are not many places where you would run across either of them without a dog nearby.

“I was part of a team working in the Canadian Rockies on a grizzly project in 2001. One of the team members was using a heeler, Gator, to help locate grizzly scat, and I was the orienteer. My main duty was to help read the map and navigate the team through the wilderness. The orienteer also collects the scat and any relevant data, while the handler rewards the dog and begins the next search.” 

“Gator’s handler had a pup at home and only had permission for one dog in his apartment, so I offered to watch Gator in the evenings,” recounts Smith. “We were spending 24 hours a day together and developed quite the bond. Since Gator's talents were a big part of the success of the project, it ended up I would be his handler, and that's where my life took a completely unexpected direction."

Hartman was working on a spotted owl study in 2009. The researcher concluded her work; Hartman was trying to find a project that would enable her to continue studying owls. “I had majored in English literature. I didn’t have a traditional science background but had spent some time doing owl research and loved it. I was considering returning to school to continue my northern spotted owl research,” says Hartman.

 “The only work I found with owls was working with a dog through the Conservation Canine program locating the owl roosts, nesting locations, and collecting owl pellets that the dog would help us find. Finding data together, depending on the dog each and every day, we became a team. That partnership with Max added a new dimension to the work. I can’t imagine doing the work now without a dog,” admits Hartman.

Biology research field positions vary widely in scope and length. “Some projects are 4 days, some are 4 months. For example, we can be asked to collect data on an animal species, locate specific animals, find invasive plants, or even find a certain plant disease,” notes Hartman.

With the help of a trusty canine close at hand, Hartman has worked on studies that focus on cougars in Washington, tigers in Cambodia, and even caterpillars.

Imagine trying to locate caterpillars in a field without a dog. To locate caterpillars, dogs actually locate caterpillar poop. Talk about needles in a haystack.  “There really is no limit to the dogs’ ability to locate specific items,” says Hartman.

‘Fieldwork’ conjures up images of pristine wilderness while collecting data on magnificent animals like grizzlies, cougars, and tigers. It all sounds glamorous. Who wouldn’t want to be in exotic locations studying amazing animals? But reality seldom measures up to our imagination.

Days in the field entail crawling through brush, ticks, leeches, living out of a car, and to top it off - no showers. Day to day fieldwork quickly dispels those idyllic scenes from wildlife films, notes Smith. “There is next to no time for a personal life. This work can be very isolating, but it’s also very gratifying.”

Another complication of wildlife field studies, especially those that use dogs as part of the search and collection team, is that the number of studies is limited. Summer jobs may be available, but it’s difficult to find ongoing fieldwork through the year. For years, Smith found summer work but fell back on working as a high school biology teacher and part-time at Lowes to make ends meet.

Despite the hardships, Smith and Hartman continue to feel the pull of this work. Those first encounters working beside dogs changed Smith’s and Hartman’s life. Hartman has been working with dogs for 12 years, and Smith has partnered with dogs for 20 years.

Contributing to the survival of species, dedication to the wildlife biology field and the ever-emerging method of using canines to assist in conversation, and commitment to their dog partners has driven Smith and Hartman to branch out on their own to create Rogue Detection Teams.

ROGUE DETECTION TEAMS

“Our mission is to not only advance this method of using dogs in conservation, but we also wanted to locate and use dogs in our program that were out of chances, not considered adoptable. Our dogs stay in our program and remain with their handlers into retirement. In addition, we work hard to provide our teams with full-time employment,” says Smith.

Rogue Detection Teams began in 2019 with Smith and Hartman as co-directors. Based in Washington, they currently have 7 other people and 10 dogs. They refer to their people as ‘bounders’ since these special individuals are bound to the land, the work, and the dogs.

“Taking aggressive dogs and dogs with obsessive personalities that are difficult pets, giving them a second chance, brings added meaning to our work.” The dogs brought into the team are usually 2 to 3 years old and from various rescues.

Smith and Hartman have a unique approach to training Rogue bounders. They believe that rather than training one person to work with a couple of dogs, teaching bounders to work with each and every dog in the program cements the method of scent work in a way so that it becomes nearly as organic to the people as it is for the dogs. This allows handlers to communicate with and excel at their task while working with any dog.

“After some work in the woods and on trails to ensure new individuals can navigate the backcountry safely, we expose them to working with the dogs,” notes Smith. Learning not only all the ways humans communicate with the dogs but also understanding how each dog communicates with people takes time and experience. “It truly is language immersion, learning communications skills between two different species.”

Conservation work with a canine partner is not based on dog obedience. The dog is free to think for themself, navigate the terrain, and sort millions of smells they encounter. Rogue dogs process thousands of small bits of information and cues the bounder when they locate the item that has been given importance by their two-legged teammate.

How do the dogs’ figure this out? Harder still, how do the dogs tell the bounder that they have found something of interest?

Small Training Steps Build on a Game of Fetch 

The training for both dogs and people is done in small steps. Training begins by rewarding a dog’s natural curiosity.

“Dogs who are toy obsessed work well in our program,” says Hartman. “Throwing the ball to them is their reward. We begin by asking the dog to locate species-specific scat and reward their interest. Layering on additional behaviors, we ask them to sit after they locate the scat then reward with a ball. We imitate fieldwork by hiding the scat. The dogs learn to trace the scent particles all the way back to their origin, enabling us to find and collect scat in the field.”

The dogs pick up on the game, quickly associating the reward of playing ball with finding a scent. But each dog ‘speaks’ to bounders differently. Some stand, others lie, when they have located an item of interest. The bounders learn to notice small things, a change in posture or behavior, a look the dog has, maybe an ear flick, or a tail wag that alerts them that the dog might be on the trail of something interesting.

Mutual Trust and Respect Cement Relationships 

The bounders also learn that terrain, wind currents, and weather all impact scent work. Using this knowledge and their relationship with the dogs, bounders help the dogs remain motivated during long hours of searching. “After the initial training time together, practice is needed to develop a relationship that results in good teamwork. Communication skills between the team members continually develop,” Hartman notes.

Training people is more challenging than training the dogs. “People are often unaware of how observant dogs are by nature. Dogs pick up on our behaviors, even the small behaviors people aren’t aware they display,” Smith points out.

“Working beside dogs makes you very aware of yourself and your surroundings. The more dogs you work with, the better you become at seeing the small behaviors cues that are unique to each dog and their communication with us and our cues to them.”

Each stepping stone toward understanding builds trust in the dog and bounder as individuals and a team. Working and living together cements the relationship and gives the team confidence in the field and in data collection.

Committed to the dogs and the handlers, two of the goals of Rogue is to promote the use of dogs in conservation and to help those committed to using dogs in this field of work to maintain full-time jobs. “Typically, it takes two years working with dogs in the field to become really experienced in handling and communication with the dog. On average, people stay in this field five to seven years due to the physical nature of the work and the fact that it can be socially isolating. We also lose talented team members because the work can be inconsistent, but we are trying to change that.”

Working in the field with conservation dogs is gaining support from the science community.

Countless Contributions to Conservation

The volume of data that is collected with the dogs’ assistance changes everything. Therefore, the ability of bounder teams to contribute to wildlife conservation is limitless.

“The bounder teams expedite meaningful data collection without disturbing wildlife,” says Smith. The fact that the teams can work in remote areas alongside wildlife without disturbing them is a vital component of conservation work.

“Working as part of dog-handler teams with multiple dogs for several years enables the handling to become organic. You work seamlessly as a team in the field with a common goal. Very few words are exchanged or needed; you understand each other and become one,” notes Smith. “The conservation work is very rewarding, as is giving a life of purpose to dogs that have the drive, desire, and heart to make incredible contributions to the world.”

In a technology filled modern world, we are often reminded that it’s the simple things, great partnerships, and natural ability that make the difference.

 Having skilled scent detection dogs and bounders proficient at navigation and communication with their canine partners enables the Rogue teams to accept ambitious studies, no matter where that takes them.

Rogue members have worked all over the world, locating whale poop from boats or pepper-sized caterpillar poop in a field; every team member – human and canine - eagerly anticipate the next challenge. Rogue Detection Teams are geared up and ready to go, no telling what discoveries they will sniff out in the future.

  ***all photos courtesy of Rogue Detection Teams