From Unwanted To Sniffing For The Future

September 19, 2023 9:53 PM

Out in the hinterlands of Montana, the nonprofit Working Dogs For Conservation takes dogs from several walks of life - rescues, abandoned at shelters, former law enforcement sniffers - and train them to put their snouts to work in supporting a number of conservation efforts.
posted by NoxAeternum (7 comments total)

Woo for more rescues and less euthanasia. None of my couch potatoes would do very well. The stout black guy currently under the covers and glued to my hip would be too eager to try and tackle whatever he was supposed to find. (He's 19 lbs but thinks he's 2 tons.)
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:01 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Ungated version of second link here.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:42 AM on September 20, 2023

Tobias, a Labrador retriever, was found wandering on the streets of Helena, Mont., in 2016. He now works as a conservation canine, conducting ecological monitoring in Montana’s Glacier National Park.
He had a hyper personality, a trait Coppolillo said often makes dogs unappealing as family pets. Instead, he was taken in by WD4C and now spends his days sniffing out invasive zebra and quagga mussels in Montana’s Glacier National Park.

This is a great program. But I was a bit disappointed when my brain caught up with my eyes and I realized Tobias sniffs out invasive zebra mussels, not invasive zebra, at Glacier National Park.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:54 AM on September 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

A friend had a dog who tried out for this kind of job, but the screener rejected her, because she “wants the ball, but doesn’t need the ball.” The drive these dogs have for their toys is intense.
posted by rockindata at 5:34 AM on September 20, 2023

the lab/shepherd mix I share my life with seems to have a food obsession sufficient to make her a candidate for this kind of training, but she's also entering the late stage of her life and as I type that I'm very sad
posted by elkevelvet at 8:39 AM on September 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

Oh boy, as for obsessions... Oldest Son got married a couple of weeks ago and they invited everyone to bring their dogs to the celebration. We can now put a lower limit on how long our Collie will chase his tennis ball when people are happy to throw it for him: 7.5 hours. The upper limit remains a mystery.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 9:53 AM on September 20, 2023 [4 favorites]

“wants the ball, but doesn’t need the ball.”

Somewhere in the world, there's a Phil Jackson Zen master of dog trainers, and I want to read their book and then also read the book they've carefully selected for me.
posted by box at 10:39 AM on September 20, 2023