Canine Conversations

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Grant Blackley from Orkney Native Wildlife Project about transitioning from airport screening detection dogs to working with conservation detection dogs. Science Highlight: Olfaction-based Detection Distance: A Quantitative Analysis of How Far Away Dogs Recognize Tortoise Odor and Follow It to Source What is similar between airport detection and conservation detection? Dog care is the same; health checks, etc. Training foundations are similar Educating the public is the same for both What things are different? Quick controlled rewards in the airport vs toy rewards for conservation Dogs on leash at all times in the airport, can be off leash for conservation Taught to speak a lot to airport detection dogs, but not for conservation Overall search styles are different Small differences in training elements All airport dogs are trained the same, conservation dogs trained individually Different hours of work, different work environment M

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Gregory Herin from Getxent to discuss Getxent tubes.  Science Highlight: Noninvasive Identification of Herpetofauna: Pairing Conservation Dogs and Genetic Analysis  Links Mentioned in the Episode:  University of Otago Graduate Thesis  Getxent Product Sheet Where to find Getxent: Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter  You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists.

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Meg Parker from the Center for Large Landscape Conservation to discuss thinking bigger in the world of conservation detection dogs.  Science Highlight: Factors That May Affect the Success of Scent Detection Dogs: Exploring Nonconventional Models of Preparation and Deployment  What does it mean to be “thinking bigger” in the field of conservation detection?  Work with academics more; ask more questions  Get more precise and better sampling  Look into better study designs  Continue expanding the field  Improve relationships with study designers, scientists, veterinarians, etc.  Improve welfare and training  Think beyond what is easiest and the way things have always been done  Where are you in the world and what are the issues there?  What can you do to help?  Think with a direction in mind and not just always going in and counting.  Where to find Meg Parker: Website&nbs

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla hosts multiple guests as they answer one of the top questions conservation dog handlers get: how did you select your conservation detection dog? You can find our guests online here: Jo Lock:     Website | Instagram | Facebook Lindsay Ware:    Website | Instagram | Facebook Conservation Dog Collective:  Website | Instagram | Facebook Rachel Hamre:   Instagram Arden Blumenthal   Website | Instagram Abby Smith     Instagram You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla hosts multiple guests as they answer one of the top questions conservation dog handlers get: how do you get into the world of conservation detection? Jo Lock's reply begins at 4:27 Lindsay Ware's reply begins at 10:48 Laura Holder starts at 18:19 Rachel Hamre's reply begins at 26:55 Arden Blumenthal starts at 29:55 You can find our guests online here: Jo Lock:     Website | Instagram | Facebook Lindsay Ware:    Website | Instagram | Facebook Conservation Dog Collective:  Website | Instagram | Facebook Rachel Hamre:   Instagram Arden Blumenthal   Website | Instagram You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode, we sit down with Heather Nootbaar and Rachel Hamre, cofounders of K9 Conservationists. We dive into the work we did in Kenya, especially what Heather and Rachel worked on after Kayla went home. We also discuss what we found surprising, inspiring, challenging, and fun about working with Action for Cheetahs in Kenya. We talk about our future hopes for the team with Action for Cheetahs and what we're hoping to do better next time we're hired as outside consultants for a scat dog program.  You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla interviews co-founder Heather. They discuss how Heather got into the world of conservation detection dogs, her experience before K9 Conservationists, and how she met Kayla.  Science Highlight: Using Scent Detection Dogs in Conservation Settings: A Review of Scientific Literature Regarding Their Selection We Discuss: Heather's dad, who showed bearded collies when she was a kid Heather's history as a zoology major in college, then working in zoos and wolf sanctuaries How diving way into animal behavior and dog training landed Heather a job with conservation dogs K9 Ellie's temperament and how that challenged Heather to grow How Heather made money and survived financially through unpaid internships How Heather selected Ellie for work - and what she'll do differently next time The pros and cons of working with a dog who's more food-driven than toy-driven What Heather learned in a K9 Nosework class that helped (and didn't help) as a working dog hand

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla interviews co-founder Rachel Hamre. They discuss how Rachel first got into dog training, her many jobs as a field tech, how she and Kayla met, Rachel’s season handling Barley, and her journey with her new dog Suki. Science Highlight: Why Sniff Fast? The Relationship Between Sniff Frequency, Odor Discrimination, and Receptor Neuron Activation in the Rat (https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.90981.2008)  Links Mentioned in the Episode:  You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla answers some questions from Patron Meg! We discuss when and how to introduce alerts, target odors, and a variety of life skills. We also talk about whether or not sports and other "hobbies" may harm your detection K9's performance and much more. Science Highlight: Search strategies for conservation detection dogs Links Mentioned in the Episode: Playlist of all of Niffler's training sessions @detectionforgood on Instagram You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this bonus episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with the Skylos Ecology Team, Tracey Lyten and Fiona Jackson, to discuss how to work safely around wildlife and livestock.  What are your expectations/goals around detection dogs and wildlife? Safety is top priority! Teaching the dog that the animal is there, they can acknowledge them, but not disturb them We don’t just want the dogs to bother wildlife, but we want them to be able to work around them as well It’s important for the handlers to be prepared for any and all hazards that you may come across  Why is appropriate behavior around wildlife important? Safety for the dogs and wildlife. Ensuring the job can get done and proper data can be collected. To give clients confidence in the method and remain professional and ethical in the business.  How do you select a dog that would be able to learn these skills? Testing dogs natural instinct around other animals; it takes a lot of work to teach a dog to not chase if they have the drive f

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Edwin, a conservation dog handler at Actions for Cheetahs in Kenya. Kayla spent 6 weeks with Edwin and Naomi helping move the program forward before Heather and Rachel (also from K9 Conservationists) arrived to spend about a month each with the program. Stay tuned for more updates! Links Mentioned in the Episode: Where to find ACK: Website | Facebook | Vaccination Facebook Page | Go Fund Me You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this bonus episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Naomi, one of the conservation dog handlers at Actions for Cheetahs in Kenya that she spent 6 weeks with before Heather and Rachel arrived in Kenya.. Links Mentioned in the Episode: Where to find ACK: Website | Facebook | Vaccination Facebook Page | Go Fund Me You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Miriam Ritchie from the New Zealand Department of Conservation about leveraging your dog’s instincts to conduct a job. Science Highlight: Impact of weather conditions on cheetah monitoring with scat detection dogs Patreon Questions: Taylor: Are they hunting the rodents? Does that affect her selection? Taylor: How has the welcome been with this project? Megan: How do you introduce the rodents in training? Do you use wild caught, captive bred, or domestic animals in training? Links Mentioned in the Episode: The success of using trained dogs to locate sparse rodents in pest-free sanctuaries Where to find Miriam Ritchie:  Instagram You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Ann McGloon from Seeking Scent about precision tracking and using hide placement to get the most learning application for your dogs. Science Highlight: Wildlife detection dog training: A case study on achieving generalization between target odor variations while retaining specificity All dogs know how to sniff. Do they all know how to problem-solve? A lot of dogs, especially pet dogs, have forgotten how to use their nose and their olfactory abilities Depends on the dog, but sometimes they need to be encouraged to problem solve. What concepts can we teach our detection dogs by using hide placement? Why would we want to use placement to teach these skills? Olfaction isn’t the only cue dogs are using to solve the problem. Location, location, location. Train the environment they are going to be searching. This will help create more efficient searches because you are giving them exposure to what they are going to be experiencing on the field. Pa

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Arden from the New York New Jersey Trail Conference about her work helping build coalitions and use detection dogs to mitigate invasive insect and plant infestations. Science Highlight: Detection dogs in nature conservation: A database on their world-wide deployment with a review on breeds used and their performance compared to other methods Patreon Questions: Megan - How did you get land managers on board? Bronwen - What’s the best way to collect and store insect samples? Are there special considerations about decay? Megan - What unique challenges are there to working with insect targets for detection dogs? Ashley - Aside from identifying and removing invasives, what is NYNJTC doing to prevent their spread? Links Mentioned in the Episode: Insert the Doug video Where to find Arden:  Website | Instagram You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Sup

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Sarah Owings from Cyber Dog Online Training about clean mechanics for training and working with high drive dogs. Science Highlight: Detecting small and cryptic animals by combining thermography and a wildlife detection dog Why do mechanics matter? Clarity shapes all learning. The clearer you are with your dog, the more successful they will be. Before you blame the dog, be sure your mechanics are clean and communication is consistent and clear. What problems can poor mechanics cause? Dogs may steal food or toys from you, bark, whine, zoomie, etc. This is all from a lack of communication What are some human-end behaviors that can cause miscommunication? Lumping criteria (ie. jumping too many steps at once) Having no criteria/winging it Sessions that are too long Lack of reinforcement strategies What are some mechanics or exercises to improve handler to dog communication? Make sure the criteria is doable and raise the criteria slowl

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Tony Harvey about intelligent disobedience. Review Highlight: JPinCB says “Kayla’s authentic, enthusiastic interest in all of her guests and topics, paired with her knowledge in a variety of scientific fields makes this podcast fun, interesting, and informative. If you have any interest in dogs, nature, travel, science, even pursuing your dreams, you will love this podcast.” What is intelligent disobedience? When the dog goes directly against the handler's cue in an effort to make the better or safer decision (ie. A guide dog not crossing the road when asked when there is a vehicle coming). How do  you teach this? This is taught by training dogs different behaviors for different contingencies A high level of reinforcement is given for these behaviors How do you teach handlers to respond to this? Many sessions with and without the dog The handlers need to learn what each behavior feels like Patreon Questions: Are there specific dog traits

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with Misa Winters and Tara Wilson about laboratory analysis of scat after field collection. Science Highlight: Duration of urination does not change with body size What can we learn from our scat samples? Genetic analysis (what species, what individual, what did it eat, sex typing) Morphological diet analysis (fur, bones, teeth, plants, insects) Microbiome (bacteria and immune system interaction) Parasites, pathogen analysis (bacteria and viral disease) Hormonal analysis (stress, pregnancy, nutrition, relative age) Age (isotope data) Hormones in particular are great from scat because it is more representative of an animal over time, versus a blood sample which is a smaller snapshot in time and could be skewed by the stress of capturing or darting an animal. What questions from samples are harder/easier to answer? Easier: Species ID from mitochondrial DNA (if you have good reference data) Prey analysis (if you have a targeted strategy - e.g. it’s

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla provides an update on what she has been doing in Kenya, announces the new K9 Conservationist course, and answers some questions from patrons. Links Mentioned in the Episode: K9 Conservationists Course You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla is back for part two with Kate Graham from Katalyst Kennels about breeding detection dogs. Science Highlight: Effects of maternal investment, temperament, and cognition on guide dog success What is important to consider for pregnant broods? Appropriate exercise for pregnant broods to keep them fit, which is better and safer for whelping and recovery Gestational appropriate diet Puzzles and enrichment post birth can help dogs meet their enrichment needs while still looking after the puppies What is important to consider for puppy raising? Avidog or Puppy Culture are great to follow for puppies, or a mix of both Links Mentioned in the Episode: Avidog Puppy Culture Maybe link Pandemic Puppy episodes? Where to find Kate Graham:  Website | Instagram | Facebook You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok